A “Civilised” and “Civilising” Game

Throughout history, there has always been one group of sport for the rich and another for the poor. This volume deals with the latter. However, clubs hold the promise of “civilisation” to members, irrespective of their class position. In this way, sportpersons get shaped by club culture in various ways. This is a culture that speaks to matters of dress, personal and public discipline, respect for authority and maintaining the establishment&s;s status quo. Club culture is the essence of what makes everybody conform to what authority figures expect good behaviour to be. In this way, the leadership in sport clubs facilitates the entrenchment of Western culture in local communities by making themselves presentable. In Cape Town society, leadership within black clubs came from the better-educated people who moved closely to white bourgeois society. St Augustine Cricket Club was one of these presentable clubs that operated in poor communities but held social functions in available luxury venues in Cape Town. This was disturbed by the Apartheid laws of the 1950s, and the club sought new ways of “respectability”, on and off the field of play.