"South Africa, now suitablyenco uraged, willlaunch annual to urna me nts.The 'Dirtv Dozen' may never see an England sweater again ,butthey could be committed for years ahead to play in South Africa - -the richest,loneliest menin cricket."
But theprobl em is alsoone of professionalismin spurt,It has somestmttartt vtothe row over marathon-manJohnny Hetberstadwho has now beenbarred from amateur running because hewas paid to run.It is a matter of sportsmen se llingtheirtalentsto thehighestbidderbecause they have made the irtalentsinto abusinessand all the old tenet s of playing for thesak eof the game are fast becomingobsolete. Of thismatter incricket Lew issays: "The ICClies flabby on top of worldcricket likea toothless,clawless lio n... what international cricketneedsisa board ofdirectors.
"Toda y, cricketis a highly entertainingbusiness run on archaic,unbusinesslike lines.Perhapsthatiswhy thegame has not ke pt pace with the hardncsed eleme nt whichhas turned itself into amercenaryarmy toeve ryon e' s embara ss- ment.
"And then ,when everyo ne has counted the cost of thetour, the onefigu re which shouldremain in all mindsisthe 387 racia l lawsin South Africawhereablackskin is synonymous with racial crime."
All heavystufffo r a newspaper which has said more for South Africathan against it.
When,aft e r a monthof indecision, the TCGB finally banned the rebels from playingtest cricket forthreeyearsand ruled thatplayers playingin South Africa in future would notbe eligible for England selection ,itwas promptlycriticisedfo r
"savagereaction " and forbowinginthefaceof extern al pressure.
Of course,the South Africancricke t auth o rities reactedtoo, in the waythey knewbest.Theypromptly offe red leading membersof the rebel team contract s fo r next seaso n tooff- set their finan c ial losses through the ban,est imated at R40 000 a year.
Thismean s that Gooch willprobablyplay for West er nPro- vince nextseason,whileSouthAfrica 'sAllan lamb,who honoured his contract in Englandand did not playthe rebels , will probably play fo r England.
But,in theend,the predictionof theconvenor ofthe Sprin g.
bok cricket se lecto rs, Dr AliBacher,probably cameclosest to the truth.
Hewarned against over-reacno ntooff icial British attitudes, sayingit was poli tic forthe Englishcricket aut hor iti es to makeanti-tou rstatem en tstosave the Indian and Pakista ni tours.
"Jtell you ,therow willdie down inmonths.. Willthat indeed proveto be so ?0
2 JUST CRICKET OR
JUST NOT CRICKET
byMalco lmMc Kenzi e
Graham Gooc h'steam of Englishcrickete rs hasrece nt ly completeda whirlw indtour of South Africa ,dur ingwhich they provided the Sprinpboks withafair semblance of intern at ional co mpetitio n for thefirsttime in a decade. They havebeen hailed by manywhites hereasbravemen who haveriskedtheir inte rnati o na l caree rsin order to fightwha tthese people seeasthe immor a linterfere nce ofpoliticswith sport.
Immediatelyaft er the TCCS had imposeda three yea r banupo nGooch and histeam, the Spdngbokcapta in MikeProct erwrotea vigo ro us defence,in hisweeklySun- da yTribunecolumn , "of the feelings of manywhohave been shoc ked bythe hypocrisyand double sta nd ards that havebeendisplayed bythose responsiblefor the well- beingand futu re ofthe game." In addi tion, the tour was seen byitssupport ersas some t hing of avicto ry fo r the so-called 'no rma lisat ion ', not only ofcricke t ,but of sport gen e ra llyin this coun tr y. MrJoePamensk y ,preside ntof theSout hAfricanCric ket Unio n, hasbeenrepo rte d as sayingthat the to ur "has resul ted in an awar enes s outside South Africa of the very rea lchanges that havetaken place onthe sportingsce neinthe Republic."
The re ishowever,anot he rwayof lookingat thetou r,And itispart icula rly important, inviewof the tot a lstrategy mountedby theSout hAfrican wnne .con rrotteo med ia in favou r of thetour , toLeaware ofthis othe rside.Ke ith Fletc her , the prese nt captainof Englishcricket ,hassa idof the banningof the <ebe!' team :"The ygot what the yde- ser ved." Muchcl n~~ 1 to home, similarsentime nts have been voice d.DrErrolVawda ,cha irmanof the non-racial Natal Counci lon Spor t andamem berof the executive of SACOS, has writte n that "the present touringpartvdese rve the contem pt that we allhavefor me rcen ar iesofanykind ." As ifth isisno t expl icit eno ugh,he has go neontosuggest that"Mr Gooch and his friends mustbe treated as scab s in the worl d sporting situatio n." What ,we may wellwonder, arethe reason sfor such an imus}
Itis for a numberof reaso ns pertinen tto co nsiderthe views ofa manof Dr vawda's position . SACOS, theSou th African Counc il on SPort, is an organisation which acti vely furth ers thecause of non-racial sportinthiscountry. And it does so bot h byserving as the umb re llabody which prom ot es the playing01 non-racia l sportwit hinSo ut hAfrica and by en- couragingthe international boy cottof Sou t h Africansport
9
TSH LENKOS I STAFF
SPORTSF IE lDS
HIGH SCHOOL 1275
76 Ahalf-sized soc cer field SCHOOL (WHITE)
307 40
Rugby andSocc er fields plus
Rugbytra ini nggrou nd . Crick etfie ld and two pract icenets. Oly mpi csizesw im mi n g pooland fullyequip ped gy m.
307 8
Half-sized soccergro und. Te nn iscourt.
In the light of the above, whatsensedo es it make totalk of the meritse lectionof SouthAfrican teams? And how dar e Mr Pamenskyspe ak of "ver y rea l changes...on the sporti ng scene ," ?
STANGER HIG H PUPILS
ST AFF
SPO R TS FrELDS ML SULTAN PUP ILS STAFF
SPORTSFIELDS
Acom p lete int ernatio nalboycott of sp o rtin g tieswith South Africa is oneof the way sinwhich these "real ch anges" may be achieved. Alth ough no tenti re lyinsign i- ficant, the cha nges thathavebeen made un ti lno w have been mino r ones,and it is im port a nt tokee pup the osvcn c- lo qica! pressu re so that major ones may follow.It is fo r th isreasonth at SACOS hasproposed amorator ium onall tou rs toand fromSouth Africa .Andagain ,th emot ives forsuc hastan ce are not obstruction ist; themorato rium is designed simply tocreate aclim at ewithinthecou ntry which is cond uci ve to change.Histo r ica lly ,spor tin g cont act with So u th Africa hasnot builtbridges , ithas me re ly rein- fo rc edwh it edominat ion.Tempo rary isolati onappears to havea much bette r cha nceofsuccess .0
Reprinted from NUX
STANG ER IND IA N HIGH SCHOOL
PUPILS 10 5 8
STAFF 57
SPORTSF IE LDS 0
A half-sizedsocce r fieldwas takenaway for prefabs.
Thedist ribu tionof faci liti es atschool level is even more iniqui to us,somuch so that it ismirac ulo us tha t anyblack spo rts players reachthetopoftheirpart icul ar sporting cod es. It isim p o rtant to rem e mber,to o,thatthese inequ a li- tiesare the direc t resul t ofpolit ica ldec isions,as they are one of the visible mani fest ation s of the policy of dtfferer-. natededuca ti on.Thefollowingfigur esareforschool s in and aro u nd St ang er in 1981.
beca useof themany sport ingcodesherewhich have re- mained resolutel yracialin charact er. One ofthe corner- stonesofSACOSpolicy is thebe lief thatthe spo rt play ed in any soc iet yca n not be separatedfrom the society in whichthat Sportisplay ed: thestructure of the formerin- evit ab lyreflects thestruct ure of thelatter. It isfo r this reason that SACOShas coined the slogan: "Nonormal sport in an abnormal societ y,"
Such arally ing crypo int svery succin tlv tothe pract ic al im p ossibi lit yof 'nor malising'sporti ngarrangeme nts in a countrywhere vast and blata nt soci al inequalit ies areco n- do nedby apartheid laws . A reallycrucialpo inttograsp her e is that the po licy ofSACOS is not foun d ed upo n ob- struc tion istmotives. It isno t that SACOS does notwishfo r 'normal' sport;itis simply that it realizes that such awish mustrem a inadreamuntil the struc tureofoursociety changes considerabl y.
Itfollowsthat,wit hi n theprese nt socialsystem, any changes inthe sportingdispensationare go in gtobeno more than merewindow-dressing.Various ad hoc amendments to sta- tues suchas the Liquor Act andthe Sep a rate Am en it ies Act, amend mentsdesignedto crea te loo ph olesthrough wh ich Sp o rtsplayersmight squeeze,do notmagicallytransform ,he Iectal cha racterof much So ut hAfric an sport. It is ob- vioustv absurdfor MikeProct e r to ac cuse the TCCB of
"hyp oc risy and double stand ard s" wh en the very news- paperin whichtheaccusation is made ca rries anarticleon Arch ie Siwisa,the first black Sprin qb ok tra m polin ist,who isnot allowedto trai n with the rest ofhis team becau sethe facilitiesof theOribi Recr ea tion Centreare reserv ed forthe useof wh it es only.
Ne it he r does the presence of Erro lTob ias in theSpringbo k Rugby team, nor tha t of Omar Henry in Peter Kirsten ' s Western Prov ince side, suggest any sign ifica n tmove in a non- rac ia l directio n.Wh en MrPamenskyspeaksof "veryreal ch anges" is he loweri ng his eyes toqress-ro ots level,or is he gazin gonlyat th eupperech e lons of white -con trolledspo rt?
Any attempt to argue forthenon-rac ial characterof wh it e- con tro lled sport, if itma nages tosidle past allth e other barrie rs,must inevitabl yfou nderonthe roc kofuisp ropo rt- ionare faci lities.MrPet e r Cooke ,the man age rof Gooch's side,has claimed thatcric ke t in Sou t h Africaisnow non- rac ia l.The experienceof SACOScricketer s in Pietermarltz- burg, however,suggestsexactly th e opposi te.TheMDCU, which is theloc al branch oftheSACOS-a ff iliatedSouth Afr ic an CricketBoa rd , hasseventee n teams playi ngunder its aegis:the numb er of field s granted it by th eCity Cou ncl:
is four,only one of wh ic hhasaturfwick et.The predomi- na nt lywhite MCU,on theother hand , boastsconsiderably fewe r players. and yet hasth e use of seven field s all with turfDitc hes.