Cricket on Cape Town's Mean Streets

I played for my father's club, St Augustine's, on a vast open space a few miles from both the sea and Cape Town. Looking back on it, the conditions we played under were a tribute to our fanatical love for cricket: about 25 teams shared the same open space and we had to tend the matting wickets ourselves.

On the morning of the match I'd walk about ten miles from my home to help prepare the wicket. We'd roll it, water it so it would cake hard on top, nail the matting down on the caked mud and then place boulders and stones on it to keep it down while we changed for the match. We had to be that careful because animals of all sizes as well as people would happily walk over our precious wicket unless we covered it!

We were never coached. We used to practice in the streets of Signal Hill, where some of us would be hauled off to jail by the police if we were caught playing on the road ... Our cricket was completely uninhibited by tactical thoughts or other subtleties. The two fastest bowlers would run in and try to hit the batsmen and they in turn would do their best to hammer them out of sight. Knocks were given and taken, none of us had a clue about field-placings and the spinners didn't know how to grip the ball. But cricket was our religion...

Although we Coloureds had little to do with white people, I eventually wanted to find out more about their style of play and facilities. Whenever possible, I'd go to Newlands, Cape Town's famous stadium, to watch the great white players in Test matches. I'd sit in the segregated part of the ground, blissfully unconcerned that I couldn't sit beside a white man but terribly envious at the skills on display. I could only afford to go for one day - I'd clean my father's pigeon loft to earn my shilling for admission and walk the seven miles to the ground."

- From: D'Oliveira, B with Murphy, P, 1980, Time to Declare: An Autobiography, Macmillan Publishers: Johannesburg, p 1-4

back to the Basil D'Oliviera memorial page

"A black man can't be a white man during a day's sport, then revert to being a black man."
Basil D'Oliviera
Basil D'Oliviera, 1966
Picture © Sunday Times

IN THE CLASSROOM

Editorials: historical opinions and arguments

In this lesson plan, learners will become familiar with the concept of an editorial. They will be encouraged to identify the writer's opinion, and to follow the development of her/his arguments.

Lesson plan
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Archive Photo Gallery
Spotlight on a reluctant hero: Basil D’Oliveira in action on the field and in top hat and tails at Buckingham Palace.
Panorama
Take a 360° tour of the memorial site on Campground Road in Newlands, Cape Town.
Basil D'Oliviera - Lost son of South African Cricket
Features footage of the 1968 England-Australia test, and of BJ Vorster explaining why D’Oliveira could not play in his own country.