"South Africa, now suitably encouraged, will launch annual When, aft er a month of indecision, t he TCGB finally banned tournaments. The 'Dirtv Dozen' may never see an England the rebels from playing test fo r three years and ruled sweater again, but t hey could be committed for years ahead that players play ing in South Africa in future would not be to play in South Africa -- the richest, loneliest men in eligible for England selec tion , it was promptly cr iticised for cr icket." "savage reaction " and fo r bowing in the face of external But the probl em is also one of professionalism in sp urt, It pressure. has some stmttarttv t o the row over marathon-man Johnny Of course, the South African cricket authorities reacted too, Hetberstad who has now bee n barred from amateur running in the way they knew best. They promptly offered lead ing because he was paid to run . It is a matter of sportsmen members of t he rebel team contract s for next season to off- selling th eir talents to th e highest bidder because th ey have set their finan cial losses through the ban, est imated at R40 000 made their ta lents into a bu siness and all the old te net s of a year . playing for th e sake of the game are fast becoming obsolete . Of th is matter in cricket Lewis says :"The ICC lies flabby This means t hat Gooch will probably play for Wester n Pro­ on top of world cricket like a toothless, clawless lion . . . vince nex t season, whil e South Afr ica's , who what international cricket needs is a board of directors. honoured his contract in England and did not play the rebels , will probably play for England . " Toda y, cricket is a highly entertaining bus iness run on archaic, unbusinesslike lines. Perhaps th at is why the game But , in the end , the prediction of the conv enor of t he Sp ring. has not kept pace with the hardncsed element wh ich has bok cr icket selectors, Dr Ali Bacher, probably came closest turned itself into a mercenary army to everyone's embarass­ to t he truth . ment. He warned against over-reacnon to off icial British attitudes, "And th en , when everyone has co unted the cost of the tour, saying it was politic for the English cricket author ities to the one figu re which should remain in all minds is the 387 make anti-tou r statemen ts to save the Indian and Pakista ni racial laws in South Africa w here a black skin is synonymous tou rs. with racial crime." "J tell you , the row will die down in mon ths . . All heav y stuff for a newspaper which has said mor e for South Afr ica than against it. Will that indeed prove to be so ? 0

2 JUST CRICKET OR JUST NOT CRICKET by Malcolm McKenzi e

Graham Gooc h's team of English cricketers has recent ly There is however, anot her way of look ing at the tou r, And completed a whi rlwind t our of South Africa, dur ing wh ich it is part icularly importan t, in view of the t otal st rategy they provided t he Sprinpboks with a fair semblance of mounted by the Sou th African wnne.con rrotteo med ia in intern at ional competition for th e first time in a decade . favou r of the to ur , to Le aware o f this other side . Keith They have been hai led by many whites here as brave men Fletc her , the present of English cricket , has said of who have risked their internati onal careers in orde r to the banning of the

9 because of the ma ny sporting codes here whi ch have re­ Th e d ist ribut io n of facilities at school level is eve n more mained resol utely rac ial in charact er. One of the corner­ iniqui tous, so much so that it is m iraculous t hat any black stones of SACOS policy is the belief that the sport played spo rts pla yers reac h the top of their part icul ar sporting in any society can not be separated from the society in cod es. It is import ant to rem ember, too, that t hese inequali­ wh ich that Sport is played: th e structure of the fo rmer in­ tie s are th e d irect result of po lit ica l d ecisions , as they are evit ab ly reflects th e structure of t he latter. It is for this one o f the visible manifestat ion s of the policy of dtfferer-. reason that SACOS has coined the sloga n: " No no rmal sport n ated educati on. The foll ow ing figur es are for schools in in an abnormal society," and aro und Stanger in 1981. Such a rally ing cry po ints very succintlv to t he pract ical impossibi lity of 'normalising' sporting arrangements in a STANG ER IND IAN HIGH SCHOOL country where vast and bl ata nt social inequalit ies are con­ PUP ILS 1058 doned by apartheid laws. A rea lly crucial point to grasp STAFF 57 here is that the policy of SACOS is not fo un ded up on ob­ SPORTSFIE LDS 0 st ruc tionist motives. It is not that SACOS do es not w ish for A half-sized socce r field was taken away for pr efab s. 'normal' sport; it is sim ply that it realizes th at such a wish ML SU LTAN HIG H SCHOOL must remain a dream until the structu re of our society PUPILS 1275 changes considerably . STAFF 76 It fol lows that, wi thin th e pre sent social system, any ch anges SPO RTS FIELDS A hal f-sized in t he sporting d ispensation are going to beno more th an soccer field me re window-dressing. Var ious ad hoc amendments to st a­ STANGER HIGH SCHOOL (WHIT E) tues suc h as the Liquor Act and the Separate Amen ities Act, PUP ILS 307 amend ments designed to create looph oles through which STAF F 40 Sports play ers migh t squeeze, do no t magically transform SPO RTSF rELDS Rugby and Soccer ,he I ecta l cha racter of much Sout h Af rican sport. It is ob­ fields plu s vioust v abs urd for to accuse th e TCCB of " hyp oc risy and double standard s" when the very news­ Rugby tr aining gro und . Crick et fie ld and tw o practice nets . paper in wh ich the accusation is ma de carries an art icle on Olympi c size sw imming pool and fu lly eq uipped gym. Arch ie Siwisa, the first black Sp rinqbok trampol in ist, who is not allowed to tr ain w ith the rest of his tea m becau se th e TS HLENKOSI 307 facili ties of the Oribi Recrea tion Centre are reserved for t he STAF F 8 use of whites only . SPORTSF IE lDS Half-sized soccer ground . Tenn is court. Neither does the p resence of Erro l Tobias in t he Spri ngbo k Rugby tea m, nor tha t of Oma r Henry in Pet er Kirsten 's In th e light of t he above, wh at sense does it make to talk Western Prov ince side, suggest an y significant move in a no n­ of the me rit select ion of So ut h African teams? And how racial d irec tion . When Mr Pamensky speaks of "very real dare Mr Pam ensky speak of "very rea l changes . . . on t he changes" is he loweri ng his ey es to qress-ro ots level, or is he sporting scene ," ? gazin g only at the upper ech elons of whi te -con troll ed spo rt? A comp lete intern at ional bo ycott of sporting ties w ith Any attempt to argue for t he non-racial character of white­ South Afr ica is one of the ways in whi ch these " real co ntrolled sport, if it manages to sid le past all the othe r changes" may be achieved. Alth ough not en ti rely insigni­ ba rriers, must inevitably fo under on t he rock of u ispropo rt ­ ficant, t he ch anges that ha ve been made unti l now have ionare faci lities . Mr Peter Cooke, the ma nager of Gooch's been min or o nes , and it is important to keep up the osvcn c­ side, has claim ed that is now non­ loqica! pressu re so that major ones may fo llow . It is for rac ial. The experience of SACOS cricketers in Pietermarltz­ th is reason that SACOS has proposed a moratorium on all burg, however, suggests e xactly the opposi te. The MDCU, tours to and from South Af rica . An d again , the motives wh ich is the local b ranch of th e SACOS-a ffiliated South for suc h a stance are not obstructio nist; th e morat orium African Cricket Board , has seventee n teams playing under is des igned simply to create a cl imate wi th in the co untry its aegis : t he nu mber of field s granted it by the City Cou ncl: wh ich is conduci ve to ch ange . Histo rically , spor tin g co nt act is fou r, only one of which has a tu rf wick et. The pre domi­ with South Afri ca has not bui lt b ridges, it has merely rein­ nant ly wh ite MCU , on th e other hand , boasts considerably forced white domination . Temporary isolation appears to fewe r p layers. and ye t has the use of seve n field s all with have a much better cha nce of success. 0 turf Ditches. Reprinted from NUX