In the UK at least the terms "private school" & "public school" are pretty much synonymous; both meaning "fee paying".
Is it different in SA?
Both schools are fee paying but 'private' schools are usually the most expensive and they don't follow the national (government) curriculum. So they write different exams to the government schools. Obviously there are loads of 'government or public schools' in South Africa, just from end of the scale to the other in terms of costs and facilities.
Thanks for this - I have to admit that I wasn't aware of the breadth of sporting options available in state schools in South Africa (ludicrously, in the UK, the phrases "public school" and "private school" basically mean the same thing - we try to use "independent school" in most official capacities). Certainly, at least, this kind of opportunity is hardly available outside of the independent sector in the UK, and for any immigrants wishing to retain this kind of sporting experience between rugby and cricket, the independent sector is the only choice (football and hockey remain very much third sports at most UK independent schools - Winchester the notable exception). St Stithian's are regular tourists here and have regularly competed in the ESCA counties' festival at Taunton - this year, their U12 beat Wiltshire, Kent, Berkshire, Gloucs, Devon, Lancashire and Hampshire before Surrey salvaged some national pride by spoiling the last day of their tour!
We have the same social split in terms of fast bowlers and batsmen: there's a clear stereotype that the Southern schools produce the batsmen, and the Northern mining towns produce the fast bowlers. Part of this was tied up in amateurs and professionals, but there's still a degree of significance - Lancashire, Yorkshire and Durham do seem to produce more than their fair share of seamers, whilst the fact that it rains all year probably doesn't help anyone who wants to learn how to bat...
Yeah, independent is another name for our 'private schools'.
Many of our smaller or lesser known private schools aren't really sporting orientated but mainly academic but in South Africa we've got boys schools that have tradition in producing mainly rugby and cricket players. Although water polo, hockey, tennis, squash, swimming, athletics, basketball are all offered. Football is only offered in these types of schools in Joburg, Durban & Pietermaritzburg.
I think our problems are level of facilities in poorer areas whose government schools don't have the best sporting facilities because there are certainly 'public school' that have the sporting facilities. As I say the life blood of our cricket. I've always wondered if England had these sorts of schools but it seems not. So its a case of independent schools have the sporting options and facilities while the non independent don't have them. Interesting.
For example by province our schools with sporting tradition -
Boland - Paarl Boys, Paarl Gymnasium & Paul Roos
WP: Bishops (private), Rondebosch, Wynberg, SACS
EP: Grey High School, Woodridge (private), St Andrews Grahamstown (private)
Border: Queens College, Selborne College, Dale College, Hudson Park
KZN C: Durban High School, Westville, Kearsney College (Private), Glenwood, Northwood
KZN I: Michaelhouse (private), St Charles College (private), Hilton College (private) & Maritzburg College
FS: Grey College, St Andrews Bloemfontein
Northerns: Pretoria Boys, Afrikaans Seuns Heurskool (Affies), Waterkloof, St Albans (private),
Gauteng: King Edward School (KES), St Johns College (private), St Stithians (private), St Davids Inanda (private), Jeppe, Parktown Boys
I read about that tour but wasn't sure what age group. Former SA cricketer Jimmy Cook attended that tour and this is what he had to say at a cricket dinner for one our major cricketing clubs Old Edwardians in Joburg.
Jimmy Cook (pictured) was the guest speaker and his talk was humorous and light hearted and ideal for the occasion. He told us that our schools cricket was light years ahead of their counterparts in England. A St Stithians team toured UK and played County schoolboy teams and beat them with ease. He said that he had difficulty in explaining to the people over there that this team was from one school and not a representative team.
But UK do push their kids earlier. He said that there were two 16 year olds playing for Glamorgan second team this season which would be very unusual in the Strikers set up. The current England batsman Josh Butler is another prime example of younger players being fast tracked.
Was aware of that stereotype in with your fast bowlers. In a way does kind of make sense. In that fast bowling often requires a lot of hard work and determination on the fields of play and maybe the more well off don't have that 'push' factor. But then I suppose you could just say they had a 'natural gift' like a Dale Steyn here.