Pitch Battles

Reviews / Votes

[R]acialised sport was a central pillar of the Apartheid regime's ideology, with the white sporting establishment and athletes - especially in rugby union and cricket - benefitting greatly from this arrangement. In Pitch Battles, anti-Apartheid activists Peter Hain and Andre Odenhaal give an account of how sport can both uphold the status quo and become a crucial site of resistance.... Sport cannot be separated from wider political struggle, and Pitch Battles is a compelling account of the way that sport was used by the Apartheid regime to launder its image internationally. But the book also documents how sport also became a crucial site of resistance to that regime, helping to bring about its downfall. This should help inspire struggles for a better world, in the face of growing capitalist inequality, COVID-19 and climate crisis. * Green Left * Pitch Battles is a brilliant study of how sports played a crucial role in ending apartheid written by two men who played leading roles in one of the epic battles of the 20th century. Hain, who launched the campaign to boycott apartheid sport, and Odendaal weave their own riveting stories with fascinating historical material about the wider issues of race and its central role in politics and society. This much needed history will be uncomfortable reading for those who have reinvented themselves as fighters against apartheid when they did everything to prop up the evil tyranny. But while celebrating apartheid's fall the authors remind us that the battle to have a level playing field is far from won. -- Mihir Bose The sports struggle was crucial in defeating apartheid -- Mavuso Msimang This is a story that needs to be told. Sportsmen and women like me were not allowed to represent their country in the past. Pitch Battles shows how this came about. And also how it took decades of struggle to open up opportunities for my generation, enabling me to take that 5/15 against the Aussies at Newlands and play at Lords and other great grounds in the world. -- Vernon Philander We are in the 21st century, and It is time to put an end to age-old race, class and gender exclusions in sport. Pitch Battles, with its historical depth and fascinating detail, will help sports people understand why. -- Desiree Ellis Stopping the 1970 cricket tour confronted white South Africa with the necessity to end racism in cricket. -- Mike Brearley I refused to play against the Springboks because that would have meant playing with apartheid and betraying many friends. -- John Taylor