
Caught Behind
Race and Politics in Springbok Cricket
University of KwaZulu-Natal Press
Will be published approx. on 1. August 2004
Book
Paperback/Softback
266 pages
978-1-86914-059-5 (ISBN)
Description
South Africa's participation in international cricket has been bedevilled by racism and the political intervention of governments virtually from the beginning. In 1894 the formidable coloured fast bowler, H. 'Krom' Hendricks, was nominated for the first South African team to tour England but was finally omitted, at the behest of Cecil Rhodes, the Cape Prime Minister, on grounds of race. In 1968 B. J. Vorster, the South African Prime Minister, refused to allow Basil D'Oliveira, the South African-born coloured cricketer who played for England, to tour South Africa with the English or MCC team. This not only resulted in the cancellation of the MCC tour but led directly to the cancellation of the South African tours of England and Australia, and the beginning of South Africa's exclusion from Test match cricket. This book is a compulsively readable account of the events and political machinations that led to South Africa's cricket isolation in the apartheid era, and its ultimate readmission. New light is thrown on the role of black cricket and black cricketers in South Africa, until recently airbrushed out of the country's sporting history, and provide the social, historical and political context of the racially exclusive teams - the Springboks - that represented South Africa in international Test match cricket between 1888 and 1970.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Scottsville, Kwazulu-Natal
South Africa
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 165 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
520 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-86914-059-5 (9781869140595)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Bruce Murray is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and president of the Croxley Wits Cricket Club. Christopher Merrett is Director of Administration at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Pietermaritzburg. He has written extensively on the theme of race, politics and sport in South Africa.