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Abstract
One of the most notable trends in contemporary Australian sport has been an increased focus on sporting contacts with Asia. It is also a topic that has began to receive attention from sports historians. One aspect of this relationship that has been overlooked, however, has been sporting contacts with Sri Lanka. A sporting relationship between the two countries is generally only seen to have emerged in the late-1970s, and then only in one sport, cricket. This overlooks the fact that before the advent of air travel, Ceylon (as it was then known) was a common stopping-off point for ships to and from the UK. As a consequence, the vast majority of Australian sporting tours to Britain in the pre-World War Two era involved a stop on the island, and a vast number of matches were played there by Australian teams from a variety of sports. Far from being a peripheral player in sporting contacts, Ceylon provided Australia with both its earliest, and most extensive, set of links with Asia. Given the number of these sporting contacts, and the time scale involved, this hitherto neglected relationship provides a valuable case-study of Australia's emerging sporting relationship with Asia. This article analyses these contacts, paying particular attention to questions of race and racial identity.
Notes
1 As opposed to matches being played on a stopover en route to another destination.
2 CitationGamage, Lomax, and Ihalanayake, ‘Tourism Between Australia and Sri Lanka’.
3 British rugby union teams called at Ceylon in 1899 and 1904, and their rugby league counterparts in 1910 and 1924, before the 1930 British Lions rugby union team were the first to play in Colombo in October 1930. CitationPerera, History of a Hundred Years of Rugby Football in Sri Lanka; CitationPerera, The Janashakthi Book of Sri Lanka Cricket; CitationFoenander, Sixty Years of Ceylon Cricket.
4 CitationZeiler, Ambassadors in Pinstripes; Ceylonese [Colombo], 18 January 1914/23 January 1914.
5 CitationPerera, ‘Notes on Sri Lanka's Cricketing Heritage’.
6 For a contemporary account of Ceylon's sporting culture in the early 1900s see CitationMills, ‘Sport’.
7 CitationMangan, ‘Imperial Origins’.
8 CitationCashman, ‘Sri Lanka’.
9 Perera, History of a Hundred Years of Rugby Football in Sri Lanka, 1–5; CitationFenton, For the Sake of the Game; Sydney Morning Herald, 19 July 1938.
10 The pioneering 1908/09 Kangaroos called in Colombo en route to England, as did the 1911/12 and 1933/34 sides, while the 1921/22 team called on their return voyage. In the 1933 match the ‘Rainbows’ defeated the ‘Green and Golds’ by 34 points to 27. CitationHeads, The Kangaroos; Ceylon Independent, 24 July 1933/ 25 July 1933.
11 Sydney Morning Herald, 12 June 1912/ 13 June 1928/11 December 1950; Brisbane Courier, 17 June 1924; Ceylon Independent, 23 May 1928; CitationBrawley, The Bondi Lifesaver.
12 Ceylon Independent, 30 December 1901; Ceylonese, 14 January 1914; CitationGrey, ‘Sporting Interactions Between Sri Lanka and Australia’.
13 Neither Mulvaney's nor Mallett's books on this tour provide specific details of the team's route to Britain. The team travelled to Britain on the Parramatta and returned on the Dunbar Castle, both clippers of the Devitt and Moore Line, which are likely to have sailed via the Cape Route rather than Ceylon. CitationMulvaney, Cricket Walkabout; CitationMallett, Lord's Dreaming.
14 Bailey had been born in Colombo in 1853, and his clergyman father was the Church of England military chaplain at Kandy. He was sent to England for his schooling in 1863, and emigrated to Tasmania in 1870. As well as participating in the 1878 team, he declined an invitation to join the 1880 tour of Britain. CitationSmith, Prominent Tasmanian Cricketers.
15 CitationReynolds, The Australian Cricketers' Tour Through Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain in 1878.
16 CitationJames, The 2nd Australian XI's Tour of Australia; Brisbane Courier, 5 April 1882; CitationMcCart, Passenger Ships of the Orient Line.
17 Brisbane Courier, 4 April 1884; Weekly Ceylon Observer, 24 October 1884.
18 Weekly Ceylon Observer, 24 October 1884; CitationJames, Australia vs. Ceylon at the Wicket.
19 CitationCashman, ‘Asia's Place in the Imagining of Australian Sport’.
20 Times of Ceylon Weekly Edition, 8 October 1890/24 October 1890.
21 Roberts notes that the term Ceylonese is a trans-ethnic identity embracing all non-Europeans indigenous to the island, irrespective of their specific ethnic heritage. It is thus used to collectively describe those of Burgher, Singhalese, and Tamil heritage, but could often also include those with Malay or Moor roots. CitationRoberts, ‘Terminology’.
22 The Times of Ceylon and Foenander indentified four players as being ‘Ceylonese’, while Perera also lists A. Raffel. Times of Ceylon Weekly Edition, 24 October 1890; Foenander, Sixty Years of Ceylon Cricket, 86–91; Perera, Janashakthi Book of Sri Lankan Cricket, 65.
23 CitationRoberts, ‘Landmarks and Threads in the Cricketing Universe of Sri Lanka’.
24 The 1899 and 1902 tourists both called at Ceylon en route to England, but neither played any matches on the island. The bulk of the 1905 team travelled via North America (after playing a series of matches in New Zealand), with only captain Joe Darling travelling via Colombo. CitationSharpham, The 1899 Australians in England; Advertiser [Adelaide], 17 May 1902; Sydney Morning Herald, 11 February 1905.
25 Although the All Golds played rugby league in Britain, their match in Colombo (as well as their previous three matches in Sydney) was played under rugby union rules.
26 CitationHaynes, All Blacks to All Golds; Ceylon Independent, 14 September 1907; Ceylon Daily News, 19 August 1926.
27 See, for example, Ceylon Independent, 13 September 1907.
28 Sydney Morning Herald, 20 August 1908; New Zealand Truth, 19 September 1908; CitationSharpham, The First Wallabies.
29 Perera, Janashakthi Book of Sri Lankan Cricket, 98–9; Otago Witness, 6 May 1908.
30 The first party consisted of Warwick Armstrong, Tibby Cotter, Frank Laver and Bert Hopkins, under the leadership of Monty Noble. The second, led by Peter McAlistair, comprised Warren Bardsley, Vernon Ransford, Sammy Carter, Barlow Carkeek and Bill Whitty. Other members of the Ashes touring party returned home individually, with Victor Trumper, Charles Macartney and Roger Hartigan all passing through Colombo during October. Times of Ceylon, 16 October 1909; 25 October 1909.
31 CitationDe Silva, The Centenary History of the Sinhalese Sports Club; Times of Ceylon, 28 October 1909.
32 Times of Ceylon, 28 November 1909.
33 Ceylon Observer, 26 October 1909; Overland Leader [Colombo], 4 November 1909.
34 Overland Leader, 14 October 1909/4 November 1909; Times of Ceylon, 20 October 1909.
35 Ceylon Independent, 1 November 1909.
36 Times of Ceylon, 30 October 1909/8 November 1909.
37 Times of Ceylon, 8 November 1909.
38 Truth [London], 1 December 1909. For examples of this story being republished across Australasia see, for example, Sydney Morning Herald, 3 December 1909; Mercury [Hobart], 3 December 1909; Evening Post [Wellington], 2 December 1909; Nelson Evening Mail, 2 December 1909.
39 The White Australia Policy did, in fact, allow Asian tourists and business travellers to enter Australia (under certain conditions), but from this and later protests it seems clear that the policy was understood by most Ceylonese to be one of total exclusion.
40 Overland Leader, 11 November 1909.
41 Ceylonese, 6 January 1914.
42 Argus [Melbourne], 19 August 1913; Sydney Morning Herald, 16 September 1913.
43 Cashman, ‘Asia's Place in the Imagining of Australian Sport’, 936.
44 Ceylonese, 6 September 1913; Ceylon Independent, 6 September 1913.
45 See, for example, Ceylonese, 7 September 1913/9 September 1913/12 September 1913/13 September 1913/14 September 1914/16 September 1913.
46 See, for example, Ceylonese, 7 September 1913/12 September 1913.
47 Times of Ceylon, 5 September 1913/19 September 1913; Sydney Morning Herald, 21 August 1913.
48 Ceylonese, 17 September 1913.
49 Times of Ceylon, 16 September 1913.
50 CitationLake and Reynolds, Drawing the Global Colour Line; CitationBrawley, The White Peril.
51 Ceylon Independent, 17 January 1910; 6 September 1913; Ceylonese, 9 September 1913.
52 Ceylon Independent, 17 September 1913/18 September 1913/27 September 1913.
53 CitationRoberts, ‘Cricketing History and Some Nationalist Hues in Ceylon and Sri Lanka’.
54 Ceylonese, 10 September 1913.
55 Ceylonese, 6 September 1913.
56 Ceylonese, 7 September 1913/12 September 1913/14 September 1913; Ceylon Independent, 26 Septembe 1913.
57 Perera, Janashakthi Book of Sri Lankan Cricket, 118–9 & 179.
58 Perera, Janashakthi Book of Sri Lankan Cricket, 179.
59 CitationSmith, With the 15th Australian XI; Perera, History of a Hundred Years of Rugby Football in Sri Lanka, 35.
60 Times of Ceylon, 23 March 1926/24 March 1926/25 March 1926.
61 Fenton, For the Sake of the Game, 31–2; CitationChetty et al., A History of a Hundred Years of the Royal.
62 Cashman, ‘Asia's Place in the Imagining of Australian Sport’, 107–8.
63 CitationBradman, Don Bradman's Book. London: Hutchinson & Co, 1930, 113.
64 Sydney Morning Herald, 20 May 1937.
65 Australian Women's Archives Project (2007) ‘1956 Australian Netball Team’, in She's Game: Women Making Sports History. Online. Available HTTP: < http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/sg/1956.html>(accessed 30 April 2010).
66 Perera, History of a Hundred Years of Rugby Football in Sri Lanka, 34 & 135–6.
67 Sydney Morning Herald, 12 May 1915; CitationMangan, ‘Imperial Origins’, 45.
68 CitationPerera, History of Royal College; Argus, 7 April 1936; Sydney Morning Herald, 27 January 1938.
69 Cashman, ‘Asia's Place in the Imagining of Australian Sport’, 935.
70 CitationCashman, ‘India’.
71 Sydney Star cited in Sharpham, The First Wallabies, 31; Smith, With the 15th Australian XI, 27.
72 Smith, With the 15th Australian XI, 27; Fenton, For the Sake of the Game, 32–4.
73 Times of Ceylon Weekly Edition, 24 October 1890; Bradman, Don Bradman's Book, 113.
74 CitationFoenander, Ceylon Cricketers Companion.
75 Times of Ceylon Weekly Edition, 24 October 1890; Bradman, Don Bradman's Book, 113.
76 Perera, Janashakthi Book of Sri Lanka Cricket, 69; Bradman, Don Bradman's Book, 113.
77 Cited in CitationCashman, Sport in the National Imagination.
78 Cashman, Sport in the National Imagination, 104.
79 James, Australia vs Ceylon at the Wicket.
80 CitationRoberts and James, Crosscurrents.
81 Cashman, ‘Sri Lanka’, 503–4.
82 CitationPollard, Home and Away; CitationHarte and Whimpress, The History of Australian Cricket; CitationHutchinson, 200 Years of Australian Cricket.
83 CitationAnon., The Doings of the Fourth Australian Cricket Team in England 1884.
84 CitationNoble, Those ‘Ashes’; CitationTebbutt, With the 1930 Australians; CitationFender, Kissing the Rod.
85 CitationSheppard, The Prince and the Doctor.
86 Mahony devotes only one paragraph each to the two matches played by the 1909 players on their return from England, and does not mention any of the controversy that surrounded the games. Bradman's First Tour includes a photo of the team in Colombo wearing pith helmets, but makes no mention of the match within the text. CitationValentine, Cricket's Dawn That Died; CitationMahony, Mary Ann's Australians; CitationAnon., Bradman's First Tour.
87 Haynes, All Blacks to All Golds, 87–96; Fenton, For the Sake of the Game, 30–2.
88 James notes that the score-books for the 1912 and 1935 tours appear to have been lost, but that the score-books for all other tours definitely excluded the matches in Ceylon. James, Australia vs Ceylon at the Wicket, unpaginated; Cashman, ‘Sri Lanka’, 503.
89 Cashman, ‘Asia's Place in the Imagining of Australian Sport’, 933–46.
90 Cashman, ‘Asia's Place in the Imagining of Australian Sport’, 936.