A Social History of the Cricket Tours to New Zealand in the 1930S

Confirming Tradition: Confirming Change – A Social History of the Cricket Tours to New Zealand in the 1930s Owen Mann Programmes of the cricket tours to New Zealand in the 1930, courtesy of the New Zealand Cricket Museum. A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Arts in History Victoria University of Wellington 2011 i Abstract This study examines the eight tours to New Zealand by visiting cricketing teams between 1930 and 1939. There were four tours made by the Marylebone Cricket Club along with inaugural visits by the West Indies, South Africa, an England Women's XI, and lastly the Julien Cahn XI. These tours were major events for contemporaries, attracting large crowds and much attention in the press. They are a focus for an examination of New Zealand’s relations with other parts of the world, specifically other parts of the Empire. The tours were major sporting events, but also prompted wider popular and public discussion of nationhood, race, gender and the role of sport in society and the Empire. For the New Zealand public in the 1930s, cricket was a game that connected them with their British and imperial heritage during a period of uncertainty. For the cricket community of New Zealand the tours were massive undertakings due to the substantial financial commitment required and poor results, but the tours continued because of the strong associations and core beliefs that cricket nurtured and because of a love of the game. Though these tours contained few moments of on-field achievement for the hosts they say much about how New Zealanders of that decade viewed themselves and others. Drawing primarily on the dense contemporary press coverage 'Confirming Tradition, Confirming Change' examines cricket's capacity to operate as more than a game - it acts as a conduit for understanding the broader social attitudes and beliefs of the time. Each of the tours contains an internal narrative concerning entrenched traditions and bonds and their interplay with newer realities and considerations. Cricket was largely administered by bodies that emphasised the traditions and conservative structures of the game, but the teams themselves represented and engaged with the changing expectations and realities of sport in this decade. Cricket was changing from within, exemplified by the expansion of test cricket but also influenced by external elements such as the growth of radio commentary and cinema. This study examines the eight tours in three chronologically bracketed chapters focusing on issues of race in the tours by the MCC of 1929-30, the West Indies in 1930-31 and South Africa in 1931-32; the issue of gender and identity in the tours by the MCC of 1932-33 and the England Women of 1934-35; and issues of professionalism/commercialism and differences in player and public expectations in the tours by the MCC in 1935-36, 1936-37 and the Julien Cahn XI in 1938-39. Throughout the eight tours there were tensions between tradition and change, sometimes exhibited between New Zealand crowds and visiting teams, sometimes between administrators and players. The tours may have reflected the weakness of New Zealand cricket, but the local players' and spectators' commitment to Empire is apparent through the continued perseverance at a sport that at the time represented imperial loyalty and global British communality. ii Table of Contents Abstract i Table of Contents ii Acknowledgements iii List of Abbreviations iv List of images v Introduction 1 Chapter One: New Visitors - Race and the Wider Imperial World - 23 Duleepsinhji, the West Indies and South Africa visit, 1929-1932. Chapter Two: Following Tradition, Confirming Change - 56 Jardine and Archdale and their teams in New Zealand, 1932-1935. Chapter Three: What do people actually want from a Cricket Tour? 87 The MCC and Julien Cahn visit New Zealand. 1935-1939 Conclusion 126 Bibliography 134 iii Acknowledgements Along the journey of this thesis I have had the incredible support of Charlotte Macdonald. Her feedback, enthusiasm and guidance has been brilliant in what has at times been a difficult and frustrating journey. I will forever be grateful for her supervision over both this thesis and my earlier research essay on Edwardian cricket tours to New Zealand. There are several people who now probably know far more about cricket in New Zealand in the 1930s than they ever needed or wanted to. I have been so fortunate to have had a band of readers who have been willing to wade into my writing. To my parents Phillip Mann and Nonnita Rees, thank you so much for the proofing but also your loving support; to Hamish; David and Kirsty who have dipped in, thank you too. Most of all, thanks to Angela Blake, who has not only had to proof my drafts, but sacrifice much of her time, energy and patience to make it possible for me to complete this project. I am forever grateful. Thank you to the staff of the National Library, Archives New Zealand and New Zealand Cricket for your support. To David Mealing of the New Zealand Cricket Museum, thank you for your time, suggestions and the access you granted me to the Museum's collection. To the History Department, thank you for the awarding me the F. P Wilson Scholarship, which was a great and unexpected honour. Also thank you to the fellow MA and PhD students who I shared the department with and whose good humour and solidarity was much appreciated - good luck with your future endeavours Elizabeth, Adam, Coralie, Catherine, Jess, Carl, Grace, Rachel and Susann. iv Abbreviations ABC Australian Board of Control BBC British Broadcasting Corporation ICC International Cricket Council MCC Marylebone Cricket Club NZCC New Zealand Cricket Council NZWCC New Zealand Women's Cricket Council NZRFU New Zealand Rugby Football Union SARFU South African Rugby Football Union WCA Wellington Cricket Association WCA England Women's Cricket Association v List of Illustrations 1. 'MCC vs New Zealand 1929-30', Printed Ephemera Collection, p. 25 Courtesy of New Zealand Cricket Museum, Wellington. 2. 'MCC versus Auckland', New Zealand Herald, 11 February 1930, p. 31 p 8.' Image reproduced courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library. 3. West Indies v Wellington, 1930, Official Programme, p. 37 Printed Ephemera Collection, Courtesy of New Zealand Cricket Museum. 4. 'South Africa v New Zealand 1932', Souvenir Brochure, p. 46 Printed Ephemera Collection, Courtesy of New Zealand Cricket Museum. 5. 'MCC Tour of New Zealand 1933', p. 57 Printed Ephemera Collection, Courtesy of New Zealand Cricket Museum. 6. 'England v New Zealand 1935', p. 72 Printed Ephemera Collection, Courtesy of New Zealand Cricket Museum. 7. 'Touring Women Cricketers', The Weekly News, 6 February 1935, p. 40 p. 85 reproduced courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library. 8. 'MCC New Zealand Tour 1935-36', p.88 Printed Ephemera Collection, Courtesy of New Zealand Cricket Museum 9. Errol Holmes (captain) and Charles Lyttelton (vice-captain) receive a p. 94 present during their visit to New Zealand. Image reproduced courtesy of Printed Ephemera Collection, New Zealand Cricket Museum. 10. 'MCC New Zealand Tour 1937', P. 100 Printed Ephemera Collection, Courtesy of New Zealand Cricket Museum. 11. 'English Cricketers Visit the Mount Cook Region' p. 110 The Weekly News, 31 Mar 1937, p 57 reproduced courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library 12 Sir Julien Cahn's Team v. New Zealand, Official Programme p. 114 Printed Ephemera Collection, Courtesy of New Zealand Cricket Museum. 13 'Timetable of Conquest', The Press 24 March 1939, p 13, p. 115 Image reproduced courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library. 1 Introduction This thesis explores the impact on New Zealand of a series of tours to New Zealand by foreign cricket teams in the 1930s. Eight teams visited during the decade. The Marylebone Cricket Club visited four times in 1929-30, 1932-33, 1935-36 and 1936- 37.1 In addition, there was the first ever visits by a West Indian team in 1931 and a South African team in 1932, the England Women's team in 1935 and the Julien Cahn XI in 1939. These tours had social ramifications beyond the confines of cricket and New Zealand. They heralded a broadening of world sports generally, while the visitors themselves indicated the changing social realities and complexities of that decade. The matches were played on sports fields while the implications of each tour were thrashed out in the press, by cricketing boards, and in conversations by New Zealanders and cricketing tourists alike. The tours and surrounding reactions, debates and narratives occurred within broader conversations about nationhood, race, gender, the role of sport in society and Empire. The tours are of historical significance because they were major events of their day and of interest to the public at large. They are of value to historians as they provide another angle on conversations about contemporary society, culture and politics. Sport matters in both the telling and creation of history. In the 1930s sport, and especially cricket, was a means of advancing the political and social claims of non- white West Indians; of conducting the robust though often neglected trans-Tasman relationship; and was a means of confirming the complexities of class relationship in England.2 The 1930s is of special significance because of the changes which took place in international cricket (as well as sport in general) and because of the dynamic state of imperial relations within this decade. The West Indies, New Zealand and India gained Test status which lead to a growth in the number of international tours 1 The Marylebone Cricket Club is both a sporting team and administrative body. During the 1930s and for much of cricket's history, the MCC has been a major force in the game's governorship.

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