2 JUST CRICKET OR JUST NOT CRICKET by Malcolm Mckenzi E
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"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 cricket 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 Allan lamb, 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 captain of English cricket , has said of who have risked their internati onal careers in orde r to the banning of the <ebe!' team : "They got what they de fight what th ese people see as the immor al interfere nce ser ved." Much c l n ~ ~ 1 t o home, similar sentiments have bee n of pol itics with sport. voice d. Dr Errol Vawda , chairman of the no n-racial Nata l Immediately aft er the TCCS had imposed a three yea r Counci l on Spor t and a member of the execut ive of SACOS, ban up on Gooch and his team, the Spdngbok captain has writte n that "the present touring pa rtv deserve the Mike Proct er wrote a vigo rous defence, in his weekly Sun contem pt that we all have for mercenar ies o f any kind ." As day Tribune column , "of the feeli ngs of many who have if th is is not explicit enough, he has gone on to suggest been shoc ked by th e hy pocrisy and double sta ndards that th at "M r Gooch and his fr iends mu st be treated as scabs in have been disp layed by those responsible for the well the world sporting situation." What , we may well wonder, being and futu re of the game ." In addi tion, t he t our was are th e reasons for such an imus} seen by its supporters as something of a victory fo r th e It is for a numbe r of reasons pe rtinent to consider the views so-called 'normalisat ion ', not only of cricket , but of sport of a man of Dr v awda's posi tion. SACOS, the Sou th African generally in t his coun tr y. Mr Joe Pamensk y, president of Council on SPort, is an organisation w hich acti vely furthers the South Afr ican Cricket Union, has been reported as the cause of non -racial sport in thi s co untry .And it does so saying that the tour " has resulted in an awar eness outside bo th b y serving as the um b rella body which prom ot es the South Africa of the very real changes that have taken place play ing 01 non -racia l sport within So ut h Africa and by en on the sporting scene in the Republic." cou raging the international boycott of Sou th Afric an sport 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 Mike Procter 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 .