Not Happy Jan

[honestbharani]

Spectators? There are like six people in India who give a crap about Ranji Trophy, and five of them are on the selection panel. No one else gives a crap. As for players, they move around a lot these days anyway, so there is no allegiance to your city in any case.

nope, but still... u have to be able to identify with something... That is why I think there is a better chance of a good domestic comp if the IPL does take off the way I hope it will.... Anyways, started a seperate thread on this... don't wanna take this thread off on a tangent..

 

[neville cardus]

Surprised (read, "disappointed") that no-one has requested illumination on the Hendricks affair.

 

[Richard]

4. The Hendricks affair.

0really, my good fellow? Please do elaborate.

 

[Son Of Coco]

The things Ive always hated about English cricket and been embarrassed about have all been mental rather than actual incidents

- The contentment with mediocrity
- Risk avoidance
- The arse about face way the game is viewed in the Country
- The approach to coaching


England fail because of the culture and mentality. Obviously many English supporters for many years are of the same culture and dont see it.

England should be capable of consistently producing one of the top teams in the World, but 'England' prevents it from happening.

EDIT- Throw in the treatment of Lol by the establishment after Bodyline

I wholeheartedly agree with everything here.

 

[Son Of Coco]

For Australia:

- The weak-kneed way CA bowed to the BCCI when they threatened to call off the tour instead of showing them the way to the airport and waving them off as they got on the plane.

- Some of the so-called 'fans' of the team who jump ship quicker than Tony Grieg at any given opportunity.

- Crowd behaviour, especially at one-day matches. I saw a sign held up at the Gabba during the Aust vs India match that was obviously meant to be offensive to the Indians. I don't think it was shown on TV and security got rid of them fairly quickly but unfortunately there's a meathead mentality amongst a small number of spectators that doesn't marry well with their redneck ways.

- Hayden's interview on radio...he came across as a bit of a pork chop...which he may well be. He is from QLD after all

 

[neville cardus]

0really, my good fellow? Please do elaborate.

Oh, if I must.

Krom Hendricks was a Maylay fast bowler who took four for fifty in 25 overs against Walter Read's English tourists of 1891/92. George Rowe and Bonnor Middleton named him amongst the finest bowlers that they met that season. It is fair to say that, before Kotze, Hendricks was the best fast bowler that South Africa had. He did for practically the entire English side in the nets.

In 1894, Hendricks was included in the final squad of fifteen for a return tour of England. Political pressure (more, admittedly, from his homeland, the Cape, than from the North) resulted in his exclusion. A prominent English magazine expressed its regret at South Africa's fussiness about the hue of its players' teguments.

The men chiefly responsible for Hendricks's exclusion were William Milton, President of Western Province Cricket and Minister of Native Affairs (a post later occupied by Dr Hendrick Verwoerd), and Bernard Tancred, comfortably South Africa's then-finest batsman, who would not tour himself due to business commitments.

The Cape Times suggested a compromise: Hendricks could be taken along in the official post of "baggage boy". The man himself understandably refused. "After his impudent letter," wrote Tancred, "I should certainly leave him out. If he wants to go on the same footing as the others, I would not have him at any price. As baggage man they might take him and play him in one or two of the matches when conditions suited him. To take him as an equal would from a South African point of view be impolitic, not to say intolerable [....]"

And that was that, a great chance missed, and almost a century of cricketing bigotry set in motion.

 

[wpdavid]

(re Hendricks) How different would the history of SA cricket been

Not very, imo. Even if one non-white had slipped through the net in the emergant years of test cricket, I can't imagine attitudes being any different as the 20th century progressed.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Not very, imo. Even if one non-white had slipped through the net in the emergant years of test cricket, I can't imagine attitudes being any different as the 20th century progressed.

By some accounts one did. Charlie "Buck" Llewellyn.

 

[Langeveldt]

Or Grahamstown, at any time of the day.

Spot on..

The only town where you can get abused by a jock in a fairy outfit at 11am

 

[Langeveldt]

(Presuming, this is, that Grahamstown and Grahamstad are two nearby places As I naturally have without even looking)

Grahamstad = Grahamstown.. Although will probably be called iRhini within the next few years

 

[Langeveldt]

SA

1. Political intereference with cricket.. Although we are doing very well for ourselves all things considered, it's not fair that after 50+ years of teams being selected on racial lines we are, wait for it, selecting teams on racial lines..
2. The relitive lack of money in SA cricket, and resulting Kolpak exodus
3. The poor crowds we get in test and FC cricket
4. The under-rating of so many of our players, particularly Kallis.. In England they talk of Stuart Broad being an all-rounder
5. Kass Naidoo

 

[Goughy]

By some accounts one did. Charlie "Buck" Llewellyn.

Wiki goes into more depth.

Born out of wedlock in Pietermaritzburg to an English father and a black Saint Helenan mother, the dark-eyed and dark-skinned Llewellyn had an underprivileged upbringing in Natal being considered of mixed blood.

Though no source is creditied, it seems to be almost common knowledge in his day.

It is interesting and especially as little is made of his selection and living in England. One would assume that as his daughter claimed her father and grandparents were all of Britsh stock that she would know best. Though in 1970s South Africa admiting to being 1/4 Black wasnt the cleverest thing to do. Also it would assume he was a non-white that married a white woman. This was before apartheid but Im not sure how often such a thing occured. Maybe it wasnt an unusual occurance, I dont know.

He certainly doesnt look of mixed race.

Would be interesting to know the full story. Was his story groundbreaking or was it all a misunderstanding that grew and spread?

 

[TT Boy]

Wiki goes into more depth.

Though no source is creditied, it seems to be almost common knowledge in his day.

It is interesting and especially as little is made of his selection and living in England. One would assume that as his daughter claimed her father and grandparents were all of Britsh stock that she would know best. Though in 1970s South Africa admiting to being 1/4 Black wasnt the cleverest thing to do. Also it would assume he was a non-white that married a white woman. This was before apartheid but Im not sure how often such a thing occured. Maybe it wasnt an unusual occurance, I dont know.

He certainly doesnt look of mixed race.

Would be interesting to know the full story. Was his story groundbreaking or was it all a misunderstanding that grew and spread?

Seems to be paraphrasing Mihir Bose’s Sporting Colours …

‘According to cricketing historian Roland Bowen, he was coloured and was chosen for the 1910-11 tour of Australia, but was obliged to change in the toilets so as to escape the taunts of his white-team mates, particularly one Jimmy Sinclair. Brian Crowley has since written that Llewellyn was the product of a white house painter from Pietermaritzburg and a coloured woman from St. Helens. J.M. Kilburn and other observers noticed his dark eyes and dark skin, and there is other evidence to suggest that Llewellyn was of mixed blood.’

Edit- From Blacks in Whites...
When his mother's origins became common knowledge, Llewellyn's team mates 'hounded' him because of his colour. It got so bad that Llewellyn used to lock himself into lavatories to get some peace.

 

[Goughy]

He may well certainly been coloured. TBH, Ive no idea.

Id be happier if the evidence was from credible contemporary sources.

It almost seems the result of gossip and a whispering campaign. Im amazed that if he was coloured and the product of a mixed race relationship that more wasnt made of it at the time in the press and print.

If such evidence exists it would be interesing to read it.

 

[BoyBrumby]

He certainly doesnt look of mixed race.

Without wishing to be deliberately contrary, I would say he could be taken to be of mixed race, from that picture anyway. He has quite a broad base to his nose & a distinct curl to his hair, both of which he could conceivably have inherited from his black mother.

Of course tho, against that, neither characteristic is absent from the quote-unquote "white" population either. However, facially he actually looks not unlike this chap to my eyes:

 

[Goughy]

TBH I dont see the similarity with Langers. His nose may be broad but it comes to a point and his head is less round. But all that is neither here or there really. I guess its a matter of opinion.

This is the cleaned up version of the above photo.

Would probably pose more questions than give answers. Almost looks like a different person.

It is an interesting topic, though one Im sure he would be suprised was still being discussed over 100 years since his debut.

 

[neville cardus]

You from Grahamstown Rodders?

Alas, no. I just study there.

Ever encounted my namesake Mr Hingston there?

Nope, which is odd if he is still about, as that photo appears to have been taken at the Rat & Parrot, every Rhodes student's favourite taphouse.

(Presuming, this is, that Grahamstown and Grahamstad are two nearby places As I naturally have without even looking)

Grahamstad, I believe, is just an Afrikaans bastardisation of Grahamstown.

EDIT: Aha! Just spotted Langers's profile-thingy.

 

[neville cardus]

Grahamstad = Grahamstown.. Although will probably be called iRhini within the next few years

I take a pontifical kind of pleasure in telling everyone that I am an undergraduate in the swish-sounding Grahamstown. iRhini just doesn't have the same aura.

 

[neville cardus]

SA
1. Political intereference with cricket.. Although we are doing very well for ourselves all things considered, it's not fair that after 50+ years of teams being selected on racial lines we are, wait for it, selecting teams on racial lines..
2. The relitive lack of money in SA cricket, and resulting Kolpak exodus
3. The poor crowds we get in test and FC cricket
4. The under-rating of so many of our players, particularly Kallis.. In England they talk of Stuart Broad being an all-rounder
5. Kass Naidoo

6. The inexplicable disappearance of Tom Eaton from both SA Cricket magazine and the Mail & Guardian. Where in the name of Pollock has he gone?

 

[neville cardus]

By some accounts one did. Charlie "Buck" Llewellyn.

A near-contemporary of both Hendricks and L. Samoodien -- of whom, by the way, I know nothing other than that he hit one of only two fifties (55) against Read's team in 1891/92. Even his first name, as far as I know, is unknown. Would that he and Hendricks had Llewellyn's fortune. I have often fantasised about one of them settling down in England and becoming a prototype for Ranji.