July 5, 1901. That was the day the first ever South African side played a cricket match in the Indian sub-continent. Oddly enough, this was a team of Boer prisoners of war, most of them Dutch speaking Afrikaners. Arunabha Sengupta writes about the historic contest that took place between the Boer Prisoners of War and the Colts Cricket Club at the Nondescripts Cricket Ground, Colombo.

The surprising pioneers

When the South African cricketers returned to international fold after their two-decade long sporting isolation, Clive Rice famously led his band of men on to the fielding a raucous, filled-to-the-brim Eden Gardens.

It was symbolic, especially when seen against the background of — to use culturally insensitive wordplay —the colourfully chequered history of the country.

The policy of apartheid across all spheres of life, which affected sports as much as anything else, had prevented South Africa from engaging in cricketing contests other than against England, Australia and New Zealand. It was only when the rest of the world clamped down on sporting ties with the country that the government welcomed rebels from Sri Lanka and West Indies to the land. Ironic, indeed, considering that the immediate cause of their isolation had been the obstinate refusal to allow Basil D’Oliveira from playing in the country as a selected member of the England team.

No representative South African cricket team had ever toured a non-white nation before 1991. And hence, the visit of Rice’s men to India was historic. It was a return to 22 yards after 22 long years. Additionally, it was a huge step for the game, venturing beyond the fragmented world of narrow racial walls.
(A group of Natal Indians did come over to India in 1921-22 and play two cricket matches and a series of football matches, but that did not really count as a representative side.)

Yet, strange as it may sound, that was not the first time a team from South Africa had played in the sub-continent. The pioneers had actually played their first match ages ago, as many as 90 years before the epochal Eden Gardens encounter of Rice’s men.

More surprising is that the team that had played that first match of cricket in 1901 did not consist of men of British descent who spread the game in the southern land as part of the Empire.

We now know that the sport had been very popular and exquisitely organised among the black populations as well. Cricket among the blacks sprang up first in Cape Town where the sons of the Xhosa Chiefs were educated in the Zonnenbloem College in the English style with the noble game forming a major part of their curriculum. Yet, the first team from South Africa to play in the Indian sub-continent was not a black one either.

This side surprisingly consisted of the third dimension of the South African cultural landscape, the population apparently least involved in the game of cricket — the Dutch-speaking Afrikaners. In popular perception, the Afrikaners were not really associated with cricket till the 1960s, always preferring other sports, especially rugby.

Yet, the members of this pioneering cricket team were Boers, most of them from the Boer republics of Transvaal and Orange Free State. In both these parts of the South African subcontinent the development of cricket had been at best rudimentary. Only two of the members of the team hailed from the Cape where cricket had seensome structure. Furthermore, no one hailed from the other nurturing home of the game — Natal.

But, in July 1901, the best players of the Boer Prisoners of War of the Diyatalawa Camp travelled 306 kilometres to Colombo to take on the local Colts XI. This match has gone down as an important episode in the history of the game.

The Boers come to Ceylon

The Boer War turned out to be the biggest, and arguably the most important, conflict in the century that spread between Waterloo and the Great War. Vast resources of gold and diamond in the Boer republics of Transvaal and Orange Free State led to the loss of over 60,000 lives and three years of severe fighting. It was a tale of greed and gore.

With the action arose the need of Prisoner-of-War camps. The Boer prisoners of war could not be hoarded near the scene of action. The British were wary of the Boer commandants storming such camps, trying to free their comrades. Thus, in the Cape, the captured Boers were accommodated in camps set up in Simonstown and Cape Town. In Natal similar camps were set up at Umbilo, Durban and Tin Town, Ladysmith.

However, when first General Piet Cronje, hero of the Jameson Raid, and later General Martinus Prinsloo, surrendered, there was the sudden requirement of 8,400 men to be held in captivity. In size and facilities, the prison camps of South Africa were ill-equipped for this purpose. Of course, for security reasons, these men could not be sent to Britain either.

Thus they were shipped to the far shores of the Empire — Bermuda Islands, St Helena, India and Ceylon.

Cricket comes to Diyatalawa

In Ceylon, the biggest camp was Diyatalawa, housing 4,000 Boer prisoners.

The name of the camp literally meant ‘happy valley’. The prisoners were less than happy, though. Their voyages to Ceylon were most often full of appalling hardships, and the huts they stayed in generally accommodated 40 to 50 men.

The camp was divided into two groups of huts, named Krugersdorp and Steynburg — named after Paul Kruger, president of Transvaal, , and his counterpart in Orange Free State, Martinus Steyn.

In spite of the difficult conditions, the Boer prisoners actively pursued recreation in many forms —rugby, soccer, athletics, boxing, swimming, tennis, quoits, skittles, billiards, croquet, cards, table tennis, chess … and cricket.

The driving force behind cricket among the Boers was Pieter Hendrik de Villiers. One of the few of the prisoners to come from the Cape, de Villiers was an off-spinning all-rounder who had played First-Class cricket before the War.

Groomed in the game while representing Kimberley, he had played for the club alongside Bernard Tancred, one of the pioneering Test cricketers of South Africa and a member of the country’s earliest and most influential cricketing families. Apart from representing Western Province in four First-Class matches, de Villiers had also played for Kimberley and Transvaal against the touring English sides of Major Wharton in 1888-89 and WW Read in 1891-92. While his bat had been rather unproductive in these matches, he had captured a bagful of wickets.

A keen cricketing man, de Villiers worked as an accountant before the Boer War. Once shipped to Ceylon and interned in Diyatalawa, he arranged for a cricket field to be laid out and formed the Stiffs Cricket Club. The camp authorities were happy to supply the equipment.

Another leading cricketer of the Boers was Gerhadus ‘Gert’ Kotze. A clerk to inspector general of the Customs Department under President Kruger, he was just 23 when the War broke out. A distant relative of the Springbok fast bowler Johannes Kotze, he himself batted as an opener and played for the Union Cricket Club under the captaincy of Vincent Tancred. He had even played against Lord Hawke’s Englishmen in 1898-99 for the Transvaal XI. READ: The travails of Lord Hawke’s team during the Jameson Raid

George Sennett was yet another useful cricketer. The young man attended the Grey College in Bloemfontein and excelled at rugby, cricket, represented Bloemfontein in hockey, played first league tennis in Orange River Colony tournaments, and furthermore was a scratch golfer and marksman. He was barely 18 when the Boer War started, and later, played for Orange Free State XV sides against HDG Leveson-Gower’s MCC side in 1909. He represented Orange Free State in 13 First-Class matches, the final outing being against Johnny Douglas’s English side of 1913-14.

The other fantastic sportsperson was Cornelius Otto. A star rugby player of Orange Free State, he was to dominate the New Year Boer sports meet in 1902. A fast bowling all-rounder, he was one of the mainstays of the team.

Furthermore, there were men like Alexus Smuts and Coert van Zyl, who hailed from parts of Transvaal not really known for the sport.

The club also boasted a cricket song, which went:

What Africanders shall dare
Any pastime to compare
With the great and grand old manly game we love,
What sight so sweet to view
As a wicket hard and true
And the fieldsman kept for ever on the move.
(Chorus) Run, run, run the balls a rolling
Scarcely to the boundary she’ll go
And the throwing’s getting wild
And the wicket keeper’s riled
So we’ll try to steal another for the throw.

A match is arranged

The Prisoners of War of Diyatalawa were not the only Boers to play cricket in the subcontinent. Their fellow men who had been sent to Ahmednagar camp in Maharashtra, India, were known to play frequent matches against their British guards. However, it was the Diyatalawa team that played the most important match of this period.

The match itself was the brainchild of Julian Heyzer, an important member of the Colts Cricket Club. According to him, it was important to correct the impression abroad that the Boers were devoid of opportunities of qualifying themselves to take a worthy part in athletic pastimes with clubs outside. The match between the Colts and the Boers was to be a prominent advertisement to the external world of the liberal and lenient governance prevalentin the camps.

Arrangements were made to obtain passes for 11 men and two officials to leave the Boer camp and travel to Colombo for the game. De Villiers, Smuts, Kotze, John O’Reilly, Piet Steyn, Sidney Tennant and Philippus Oosthuizen formed the selection committee. They did a creditable job. Steyn and O’Reilly, two of the selectors, did not travel for the game themselves. The team was thus chosen purely on merit and form.

The idea had been to hold the match at the Colombo Sports Club. However, the Colts and the Sports Club fell out while discussing the details, and the venue was shifted to the Nondescripts Club at Victoria Park.

The Victoria Park ground too had a splendid cricketing history. Ivo Bligh’s English team had played the Royal Dublin Fusiliers there in October 1882 on the way to their landmark tour to Australia to recover The Ashes.

In return for the flexibility of Nondescripts, the Colts Club sanctioned the expenditure of 600 rupees for suitable accommodation of all classes of spectators who might be attracted to the game. Four large stands were constructed and a special pavilion was erected for His Excellency the Governor. The pavilion was carpeted and decorated with foliage from the nursery gardens of PD Siebel. Arrangements were made for a special marquee for the players. The owner of the Globe Hotel set up a public bar to be run during the match. A section of the ground was also set aside for spectators who could not afford the entrance fee.

Thus all was set for the match to commence on Friday, July 5, 1901.

On Thursday, the day before the scheduled start of the match, the 13 men slotted to travel were at the gate of the Diyatalawa camp as early as a quarter to six in the morning, waiting fervently for their paroles to be inspected. Soon they were walking briskly to the station on the hill, to start out on their day-long journey to Colombo. There as the train puffed in, the two hospital nurses who had come to wish them well took their leave.

The Boer cricketers were thus on their way to take part in one of the most unusual matches in the history of the game.

The journey

Two tea-planters accompanied the cricketers as their train puffed its way across the island of Ceylon. The two stayed with them till Hatton. They had been to a shooting competition and just received a licking from Cornwall.

As the journey progressed, the two companions claimed to know the ins and outs of the game of the Colts team. Hence a lot of advice was shared. Unfortunately, the invaluable tips proved to be useless when put to test on the field.

The journey occupied most of the day before the train chugged in to Colpetty. The Boer prisoners of war were supposed to get off here to get their connection to Mt Lavinia. The arrangements were for them to spend the night in Mt Lavinia and travel to Colombo via Colpetty after breakfast the following morning.

As the train drew up to the platform, they found the station brimming with people gathered to steal a glimpse of the Boer cricketers. Hesitantly the men got out of the train with their luggage, waiting to be told where to go. Yet, some of them had misgivings. When they saw no one of official bearing in the gathered crowd, doubts set in. Commandant Coert van Zyl deduced that they had to go on further on the train. In the confusion of the moment, all the cricketers managed to hop back into the coach just as it had started to move off.

However, van Zyl was wrong. The party found that out soon enough. They got down at the deserted station where the train stopped next, wondering what to do. Fortunately, an official arrived, and led them round the corner, up a street and round another corner back to Colpetty station. All the way, they were followed by a huge group of curious native islanders.

George Sennett thought that they would spend the night in the local gaol. But, the connecting train was still waiting for them and JC Heyzer, the senior member of the Colts side who had been the brain behind the match, had come to meet them with some of his teammates. The cricketers boarded the train, accompanied by several of the Colts and soon set off for Mt Lavinia.

The members of the Colts side got off at their respective stops close to their homes, but the air was filled with bonhomie. At every local station, groups of men peeped into the windows of the coach, saying, There they are. The air was charged with anticipation and excitement.

It was dark by the time the train finally pulled up in Mt Lavinia. After a quick supper, the cricketers were shown their beds in the old barracks.

It was a large stone building on the very edge of the sea. The waves in fact splashed against the foundations. The men slept after the long day to the roar of the sea, as the doors were kept open for the sea breeze to battle the oppressive heat.

Early next morning the cricketers took a dip in a nearby pond, hidden away among the palm trees, and had their breakfast. At 8 o clock they were on their way to Colombo, sharing the train with businessmen going up to the city for their daily grind.

Once again they were met by the Colts at the Colpetty station. And soon they were making their way to the ground on rickshaws.

Cricket gets under way

The atmosphere as they reached the Victoria Park of the Nondescripts Club was engagingly festive. The blistering sun and the stifling heat did nothing to dampen the spirits. The spectators had gathered in huge numbers, and the bar run by the Globe Hotel dispensed refreshments of excellent quality of both liquid and narcotic varieties.

Pieter de Villiers, captain of the Boers, walked out to toss with his opposite number Dr Allan Raffel. The flip of the coin was overseen by the two umpires, Sydney Tennant of the Boers and AC Solomonsz of the Colts. The scorers, Phillipus Oosthuizen of the Boers and SP Joseph of the Colts took their positions.

The bearded de Villiers, the heart and head behind the cricket of the Boer prisoners of war, won the toss and asked the Colts to bat first. The local club was composed mainly of expats of British and Dutch origins, but also had some serious local talent. CE Perera, one of the finest schoolboy batsmen produced by the country, was one of the key members of the team. Years later, another star of their team would be called Chaminda Vaas.

Heyzer and AT Pollocks opened the batting for the Colts. De Villiers bowled his off-breaks and from the other end Cornelius Otto ran in with his fast stuff. The bowling was tight, the fielding excellent. Runs were difficult to come by.

The first wicket fell in Otto s second over. Pollocks slashed and was caught by D du Toit at third-man. The left handed J Ludovici, who hailed from the Royal College and had played against the Australians of 1896, walked in at No 3 and drove de Villiers past mid-off for the first boundary of the match.

Meanwhile, Otto was bowling a superb spell. Not only was he troubling the batsmen, his fielding off his own bowling was magnificent as well. When Ludovici pushed him to the on and called for a single, Otto moved quickly, swooped down on the ball and threw down the stumps catching Heyzer short of ground. And this resulted in Perera walking in.

The most fruitful partnership of the innings followed. Perera was tall and lean and has been described as a batsman who batted with the grace and footwork of a Jack Hobbs or a Victor Trumper . Hyperbole perhaps, tinged with patriotism. That is hardly unknown in cricket. However, we must remember that the same island gave birth to Kumar Sangakkara.

Perera was hugely popular for his batting, and had been known as Amaradasa when he had played for Buddhist College. He started his innings with two braces and a boundary off consecutive balls of de Villiers. Some lusty hits followed from both ends before the Boer captain had Ludovici caught at point by Coetzer for 19.

The man who walked in next was L Thomasz, a hugely experienced and immensely talented cricketer from Royal College. He had already played against the Australians of 1893 and 1896 and also against Lord Hawke s side in 1892-93.He would demonstrate some breath-taking skills in the second innings, but in the first he found it hard to get the ball off the square.

Meanwhile, Perera was batting like a dream. De Villiers was driven for a boundary and lofted into the Ladies Pavilion for six. The 50 was up for Colts.

Yet, at the other end, Otto kept striking almost single-handedly. Thomasz fell to a brilliant return catch. Banda Kelaart swung at him, sending the ball spiralling in the air behind the wicket, and was caught by Tommy Hilder at long-stop. Skipper Dr Raffel was bowled by a ball that came back sharply from the leg. W de Fransz snicked one from Coetzer to the wicketkeeper Sennett. EA Joseph fell to a break-back from Otto. And Tommy Kelaart was yorked by the same bowler. The hosts had collapsed to 92 for 9 and Otto had six wickets. The Boers had taken the ground by storm.

But now Perera fought back. J Forsyth was one of the most unheralded cricketers of the Colts side, who would bat at No. 11 in both innings and not send down a single delivery. Yet, he proved to be difficult to dislodge. Perera, meanwhile, his bat swinging merrily, cracked the ball to all parts of the ground. Coetzer was lofted for six, as was the deadly Otto.

Forsyth did not score too many, but Perera s brilliance saw them add 54 for the final wicket. It was a tiring Otto who finally had the last man caught in the slips by van Zyl for 8. Perera remained unconquered on 90 out of a total of 146. Otto s figures read 28-9-50-7.

As the fielders walked off the ground, the skies darkened and soon a heavy thunderstorm lashed across the field. This provided a splendid opportunity for the organisers to demonstrate their hospitality. The two teams were taken to the nearby Galle Face Hotel and treated to a sumptuous lunch.

The lengthy break notwithstanding, when the players returned to the ground the spectators were still abuzz with excitement. The two captains walked out again, this time to inspect the wicket, and decided to move the pitch slightly to the left. At half past three, Gerhardus Kotze and van Zyl opened batting for the Boers. Tommy Kelaart and Ludovici started the bowling for the home side.

The collapse

The great work of the Boer team on the field unfortunately could not be matched by their willow work. Kotze fell leg-before to Ludovici. Hilder followed, caught in the slips. It was 5 for 2, and van Zyl, a giant of a man with the playfulness of a schoolboy, faced Ludovici. He responded to the early strikes by hoisting the bowler for a gigantic six. But, off the next delivery he skied a catch to de Fransz. His 10 remained the second highest score of the innings.

Wickets kept tumbling. Sennett was bowled by Ludovici, Alexus Smuts castled by Thomasz. Amidst all this confusion, Johannes Scheepers was run-out to make it 15 for 6. Du Toit swung his bat at Joseph but de Franz plucked the travelling ball out of thin air.

At 15 for 7, P du Plessis joined captain de Villiers and some sort of sanity was restored. 22 were added before Thomasz deceived the skipper to bowl him for 7.

With the score reading 37 for 8, du Plessis, tall and athletic, decided desperate measures were required. Joseph was lofted back over his head for six; a couple of other deliveries were dispatched into the outfield. And in trying to hit once too often he skied Joseph to Banda Kelaart for 25, the highest score of the innings by a big margin.

Otto was bowled by Thomasz for the fifth duck of the innings. The Boer innings was over in just 90 balls and the score read 53. Ludovici had 3 wickets for just 8, Thomasz 3 for 7, and Joseph captured 2 in spite of giving away 32 in just 5 overs.

Ambidextrous entertainment

There was a breather after this extreme rush of wickets. Governor of Ceylon Sir West Ridgeway, who had a special pavilion constructed in his honour for this very match, was introduced to de Villiers.

After the brief event, the Colts began their second innings at twenty to five. There was huge cheering from the spectators as the match resumed.

Otto, so dangerous in the first innings, struggled with his line for a while. Two wides started things off, not quite ideal in such a situation. Heyzer and Pollocks stretched the big lead to 108 with a 15-run stand.

However, it did not take Otto long to get his line and rhythm back. Pollocks was bowled by a vicious break-back. Ludovici tried to drive de Villiers without getting to the pitch of the delivery and was caught in the covers. Perera, the hero of the first innings, followed suit almost in the same manner, perishing to another catch in the covers for a duck.

Dr Raffel came in earlier than he had in the first innings, but soon hit Otto to cover where Kotze held the third catch in succession. Banda Kelaart put his head down and the score progressed to 36 for 4. Now de Villiers tossed one up to tempt Kelaart down the wicket. Sennett, who had kept wicket with great finesse, whipped off the bails.

And as the shadows lengthened, the spectators were treated to another thrilling display of skill. Thomasz, talented and ambidextrous, delighted them by batting both right- and left-handed, hitting the ball with a daring that regaled many. The score hastened along to 71 when he chanced his arm once too many. Scheeper was lofted, and du Plessis, running in from long-on, held the catch low down with brilliant athleticism making the crowd roar in appreciation. Thomasz departed for 20 and it brought an end to the day s cricket.

The greatest challenge faced by the Boer cricketers that day was not on the field of play, but to come out and get on their rickshaws to the station. When the train took them back to Mt Lavinia and they made for the barracks, they were still accompanied by a number of Colts members and Ceylonese fans. At last, when they were alone, a late supper was partaken and then the team gathered around the captain s bed to discuss the events of the day. Sleep came easy after the splendid experiences.

The feast and the finale

26 wickets had fallen on Friday, and the time required to finish the match on Saturday was estimated to be brief. Hence, the start was delayed and the teams made for lunch at Galle Face Hotel.

It was a splendid affair, and the menu card tells us that the fare was fit for kings.

Soup Consomme en tasse (cold)

Fish fins herbs

Dressed crabs

Irish stew

Roast sirloin of beef and Yorkshire Pudding

Green peas, cabbages, saut potatoes

Mutton Tongue

Salads Potatoes French Beans

Sultana Pudding

Unbelievable as it may sound, even after this feast the two teams managed to make it to the ground at two o clock in the afternoon. The pioneering photographer AW Andree, along with his assistant, took photographs of the sides.

The crowd was smaller, but there was no dearth of excitement in the atmosphere. The trees bordering the ground had been fully utilised, with local fans climbing high to vantage viewing points. Periodically, there were the ominous sounds of branches crashing down under the weight of the spectators.

As the game restarted, de Fransz commenced proceedings by punishing the bowlers. He scored a quickfire 19 before he mishit a drive off de Villiers and Kotze brought off his fourth catch of the innings. Three runs later, Heyzer s long vigil came to an end at 36 as Smuts caught him at silly mid-off off the skipper s bowling. Otto charged in to leave the stumps of Joseph spread-eagled. And finally Tom Kelaart was caught off de Villiers to end the innings.

The second essay of the Colts had amounted to 114, and de Villiers had captured 6 for 64. Otto s 3 for 25 gave him 10 for 75 the match.

At a quarter past three, Kotze and van Zyl walked out, the target reading 208, the only realistic Boer option to bat out the rest of the day to earn a draw. At this moment, to add to the glitz and glamour of the occasion, Sir West Ridgeway arrived accompanied by his cricket-loving private secretary, and a number of dignitaries. The Boer General JH Olivier and Field-Cornet Solomon Gillingham were also present. The Ceylon Light Infantry played some excellent selection of music embracing some of the popular operas. The Boers could not be faulted for feeling at home.

Was he swayed by the atmosphere? Whatever was the cause, contrary to the demands of the situation van Zyl skied the first the ball he faced from Joseph down the throat of de Fransz. Soon, Hilder was bowled by the same bowler. Sensing a quick finish, Dr Raffel did not put on his best bowlers Kelaart and Ludovici, in order to give the crowd some cricket to watch. However, the Boer batsmen could not really use this act of benevolence. Apart from Kotze, none of the other batsmen stuck around.

With the match nearing its end, the Governor started to leave the ground. Van Zyl, Boer commandant and the only officer in the team, took off his hat and called for three cheers. Sir Ridgeway acknowledged by lifting his panama.

When the last wicket fell, Otto bowled by Joseph to give the bowler his eighth wicket of the innings, the crowd surged on to the ground. They made for the players tent and only some violent use of the policemen’s canes ensured that the cricketers could gather in their groups relatively unscathed.

Commandant van Zyl called for three cheers for the Colts. The local side themselves returned the compliment. The crowd cheered vociferously for both teams. The Boer cricketers were vocal in expressing their delight in the cricket and the hospitality.

Once again, during the journey to the station, the Boers were accompanied all the way by the fans. On the following day, several Colts cricketers visited them at Mt Lavinia to discuss the war. De Villiers regaled them with stories.

According to Sennett, Mr de Villiers won all their hearts, I think, they are very warm in that organ. They were all so good and friendly that in spite of our licking we began to look upon them almost as ourselves. On Monday morning we left again for camp at Diyatalawa and arrived at sunset to great enthusiasm at the gate.

The Ceylon Independent was succinct in their analysis: The Boers can bowl, and the Boers can field, and they are by no means indifferent performers with the knife and fork, but at batting

Whatever skills were displayed by the Boers, it had been one of the most fantastic episodes in the history of the game.

Brief scores:

Colts Cricket Club 146 (CA Perera 90*; Cornelius Otto 7 for 50) and 114 (Pieter de Villiers 6 for 64) beat Boer Prisoners of War 53 and 66 (EA Joseph 8 for 31) by 141 runs.