History of South African cricket to 1888
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This article describes the history of South African cricket to 1888. First-class cricket was introduced to South Africa in the 1888-89 season with the arrival of the first English touring team and the presentation by Sir Donald Currie of the Currie Cup which was first contested in the 1889-90 season.
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[edit] Beginnings
European colonisation of southern Africa began on Tuesday 6 April 1652 when the Dutch East India Company established a settlement called the Cape Colony on Table Bay, near present-day Cape Town. Cape Colony slowly expanded along the coast and into the hinterland throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. It was originally founded as a victualling station for the Dutch East Indies trade route but soon acquired an importance of its own due to its good farmland and mineral wealth.
There was no significant British interest in South Africa until the colony was seized by British forces in 1795 under General Sir James Craig during the French Revolutionary War, the Netherlands having fallen to Bonaparte in the same year. British policy was to secure the colony against French encroachment in the name of the Dutch Stadtholder Willem V. Under the terms of the short-lived Treaty of Amiens in 1803, Cape Colony was handed back to the Netherlands, or the Batavian Republic as Bonaparte wished it to be known. In 1806, with the Napoleonic Wars proper now under way, Britain again invaded and seized Cape Colony, this time with permanent designs on it. The whole territory was formally ceded to Great Britain in 1814 by the Anglo-Dutch Treaty and administered as Cape Colony until it joined the Union of South Africa in 1910.
Cricket arrived very quickly once the British had finally taken over with the earliest definite reference to the game in South Africa dated 1808.
[edit] Early developments
On 5 January 1808, a match between two teams of English officers is the earliest definite reference to cricket in South Africa.
In 1862, an annual fixture "Mother Country v Colonial Born" was staged for the first time in Cape Town. In 1876, Port Elizabeth presented the "Champion Bat" for competition between South African towns.
[edit] Beginning of first-class cricket
On 12 & 13 March 1889, South Africa versus England at Port Elizabeth was the start of cricket in South Africa at both Test and first-class level. The England team, captained by future Hollywood actor C Aubrey Smith, played two Tests on the inaugural tour, at Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, winning both by comfortable margins. Lancashire spinner Johnny Briggs had match figures of 15-28 at Cape Town.
Domestic first-class matches began at the end of 1889 (i.e., in the 1889-90 season) when the inaugural Currie Cup competition took place and was won by Transvaal.
[edit] References
- Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians - various publications
- From the Weald to the World by Peter Wynne-Thomas
- The Hamlyn A-Z of Cricket Records by Peter Wynne-Thomas (to 1982)
- Wisden Cricketers Almanack (annual) (from 1868)
