Pre-1991 Unification

Black society in South Africa had entrenched notions of separateness and organised themselves in this manner. One of the early black cricketers with an international profile in 1896, Krom Hendricks, desired not to be associated with the descendants of Muslim slaves but rather with the Christian ruling class. However, from the 19th century, colonised communities were united in a long tradition of black support for visiting international sides. Initially, the controlling organisation for black cricket in Cape Town, the Western Province Cricket Board, did not emphasise the cultivation of a non-racial ethos; instead, it focused on a fight for international recognition. With emerging and conflicting ideas of black unity taking root in South Africa after the Second World War, the South African Cricket Board of Control (SACBOC) was established in 1947, aiming to unify divergent black communities. SACBOC survived till the 1970s. The multinational sport policy of the Apartheid regime, however, caused splits in the organisation where one group, led by Hassan Howa, formed the South African Cricket Board and strove for non-racialism. Another group, led by Rashaad Varachia, worked within the multinational policy. St Augustine Cricket Club officials played an important part, on and off the field, in SACBOC activities.