Abstract
This study discusses the institutional history of the South African Cricket Board of Control (SACBOC) from 1947 to 1977 and the institutional formations that followed in the wake of its dissolution during the 1980s. It argues that this institution, which emerged as a predominant force advocating for the politics of non-racialism in cricket, reflected the complex ideological disputes that raged over the question of non-collaboration with apartheid authorities and other related white cricketing bodies. While the organisation’s history is investigated from its founding in 1947, this thesis considers the 1970s an incredibly crucial era for non-racial sports.
In this period, marked by a new intensity in the liberation struggle, the organisation was drawn into the combative ideological contests that broadly marked the era. By considering SACBOC’s conflictual relationship with the apartheid state, as well as the interpersonal clashes that unfolded within the organisation (which were bound up with the former), the thesis shows the rugged terrain which proponents of non-racial cricket traversed in the final decades of apartheid. Through the extensive analysis of archival records, the chapters that follow show how navigating the tension between principled non-collaboration with the apartheid state, on the one hand, and the desire to seize what few opportunities existed for black players and administrators to participate in sporting activities on the other, proved challenging both for cricketers and the executive of SACBOC. The study concludes that the fallout from the controversial decisions made by SACBOC leaders in the final decades of apartheid continues to echo through to the present day.