Howa Bowl

The Howa Bowl was a first-class cricket competition in South Africa that ran from the 1972-73 to 1990-91 cricket seasons. Originally known as the Dadabhay Trophy, it was contested between Eastern Province, Natal, Transvaal and Western Province.

Running alongside the South African apartheid years, the Howa Bowl was limited to non white players, who were not permitted to compete in the Currie Cup. It was organised by the South African Cricket Board and the matches were played over three days. The pitches used in the competition were poor quality, which is highlighted by the fact that a team passed 400 in an innings just six times while falling for under 100 on 87 occasions.^[1]

In the early 1990s, when South Africa's sporting isolation ended and the United Cricket Board (UCB) was formed, the Howa Bowl ended as did any racial divide in the nation's cricket competitions. Although the matches had not been given first-class status at the time, the UCB requested them to be and records were amended to include the 216 Howa Bowl matches as well as seven other representative matches between 'non white' teams. This meant that West Indian Test cricketer Rohan Kanhai, who played early in the competition with success, moved past Plum Warner on the list of all time leading first-class run scorers and joined his former teammate Gary Sobers on 86 hundreds.^[2] Furthermore two instances of the rare dismissal - Out handled ball, were added to the records.

Champions by season

The Howa Bowl was dominated by Western Province, who won 13 of the 18 seasons outright, and shared another with Natal. Of the remaining four seasons, Eastern Province won 3 and Transvaal won 1.

References