South African Cricket: ‘The Rainbow Nation Must Have a Rainbow Team'

The administrator Ali Bacher has stressed the importance of understanding one’s history in order for cricket to grow and develop. He has argued that ‘Cricket is a game that’s all about the past … it’s the history of the game and the stories about the great players of yesteryear that spurs us on’. [ ¹ ] History, of course is about more than individual greats, as an understanding of any era is reliant on the study of many factors. In particular, as the historian E.H. Carr has reiterated, the viewpoint of the historian is a consequence of his or her social and historical background. [ ² ] History is also rooted in ignorance. Lytton Strachey, in his preface to Eminent Victorians , wrote that ‘ignorance is the first requisite of the historian, ignorance which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits’. [ ³ ] With an eye on these two principles, this contribution emphasizes the lesser-known history of black [ ⁴ ] South African cricketers, many of whom were capable of equipping themselves against their white peers, but forbidden to do so because of social, economic and political constraints. It looks at how and why many were not included in the stories about the great players of yesteryear, and examines the restrictions that prevented them from competing at the highest levels. The chapter’s key theme is an examination of the contemporary progress of players from disadvantaged communities. It seeks to establish the existence of social and economic restrictions in the construction of the ‘rainbow’ nation. This is attempted through a brief assessment of the role of politics in shaping non-racism in cricket, and from that a study of the advances made by black cricket. This complements an assessment of wider post-apartheid economic developments. The chapter also explores the attitudes of the white cricketing community, both historically and today. The work concludes with the argument that race remains a central determinant in South African society, and therefore its cricket, further reinforcing the hypothesis that sport is shaped by its social environment.