List A Limited-Overs Declared Innings

[Neil Pickup]

Rhodesia v Transvaal appears to have been an attempt, under threat of rain, to get the game finished. It didn't work - they replayed the day after.

Interestingly, the Black African sides were both captained by a P.Chingoka...

 

[wpdavid]

Thanks for those Neil, there's plenty of interesting stuff there. Not least the presence of the decidedly non-white Rodney Ontong in the Transvaal side. And one RA Woolmer in the Natal XI.

I hadn't realised that the SA African side was actually playing in a proper competition. It would be interesting to know how the side was selected, or, perhaps, who made themselves available to play. Clearly there had been some very good nonwhite players in SA over the years, unless D'Oliveira was a complete one-off, but not in these XI's.

 

[Ash_A55]

Beat ya to it, Ash.

grrrrrr

 

[Goughy]

I hadn't realised that the SA African side was actually playing in a proper competition. It would be interesting to know how the side was selected, or, perhaps, who made themselves available to play. Clearly there had been some very good nonwhite players in SA over the years, unless D'Oliveira was a complete one-off, but not in these XI's.

There were many good non-white players (though how good is debatable as few ever played against the top players) but very few African Black players of note.

Virtually all the top non-white cricketers were Indian or Coloured. A quick look at my records of the top non-white players includeds names such as Mustupha Khan, Armien Jabaar, Devdas Govindjee, Faghme Abrahams, Lefty Adams, Faiek Davids and Saait Magiet.

The 1970s were an interesting time in SA cricket. There were many efforts for integration in sports and non-white players were allowed to play in white teams which a few players took the opportunity to do. However, the Non-white sports administrators frowned on this mingling and wanted to keep sport seperated on a racial basis as they believed that to integrate and play with white players would be the equivelant of endorsing the then current regime.

Players such as Govindjee moved to the 'White' organisation and formed a club there and played for Eastern Province. However, such players were almost despised by non-white sports people for taking part in the 'abnormal society'.

SA cricket in the 1970s was pretty messy but there were efforts to integrate and efforts to prevent it from all sides.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Seems like a massive overreaction to me there. Fine what he did was unsavoury and against the spirit of the game, but the reaction and massive vilification that Rose faced seems way harsh especially when he didn't actually break any rules. Interesting(good) thread.

Well it wasn't technically against the rules, but the cynicism on display makes the whole underarm incident look decidely sporting.

 

[wpdavid]

There were many good non-white players (though how good is debatable as few ever played against the top players) but very few African Black players of note.

Virtually all the top non-white cricketers were Indian or Coloured. A quick look at my records of the top non-white players includeds names such as Mustupha Khan, Armien Jabaar, Devdas Govindjee, Faghme Abrahams, Lefty Adams, Faiek Davids and Saait Magiet.

The 1970s were an interesting time in SA cricket. There were many efforts for integration in sports and non-white players were allowed to play in white teams which a few players took the opportunity to do. However, the Non-white sports administrators frowned on this mingling and wanted to keep sport seperated on a racial basis as they believed that to integrate and play with white players would be the equivelant of endorsing the then current regime.

Players such as Govindjee moved to the 'White' organisation and formed a club there and played for Eastern Province. However, such players were almost despised by non-white sports people for taking part in the 'abnormal society'.

SA cricket in the 1970s was pretty messy but there were efforts to integrate and efforts to prevent it from all sides.

Very interesting, and thanks for the info. tbf I can understand the scepticism from the nonwhites if they felt that a degree of integration in sports was only a token gesture to get SA back into international competition without making any real changes in the day-to-day lives of the non-white population. So did all the players you mentioned play in the FC game over there? As I mentioned previously, I was more than a little surprised to see Ontong on the team sheet, as I remember him playing for Glamorgan in the 1970's, and he was definitely black when he played over here.

 

[Goughy]

So did all the players you mentioned play in the FC game over there? As I mentioned previously, I was more than a little surprised to see Ontong on the team sheet, as I remember him playing for Glamorgan in the 1970's, and he was definitely black when he played over here.

A short answer would be yes and no

Yes some non-whites played in the 'White' FC system against players such as the Pollocks but the White system had a parallel non-white system that played Provincial cricket and was recognised as FC in SA.

For example the guy I mentioned, Govindjee, has a FC record on Cricinfo of 4 games for Eastern Province but my South African records give him 41 FC games which is mainly if not all games for Eastern Province Sacboc and SACB (the Eastern Province non-racial and Non-white Cricket Boards ).

There was full Provincial cricket for the non-white players, and a few did cross over but many more didnt (either due to politics or the jump in standard).