Thirty years ago, Omar Henry became the first player of colour to represent South Africa at a Cricket World Cup. It should have paved the way for many others to seamlessly follow suit. But it has been far from seamless and columnist Gasant Abarder has instead found a new love for cricket in the unlikeliest of places – Hanover Park.
Abarder, who recently launched his book, Hack with a Grenade, is among the country’s most influential media voices. Catch his weekly column here, exclusive to Cape {town} Etc.
Thirty years ago, in 1992, white South Africa voted yes in a referendum to end apartheid. But my 14-year-old self only had eyes for the team travelling to Australia and New Zealand to play in South Africa’s very first Cricket World Cup that year. I was intrigued by Omar Henry’s inclusion in the team as the only guy who looked like one of my uncles.
That tournament sparked a long love relationship with the national team that I wish I could say has endured. I made my dad drive around the far reaches of our city to find a store that sold the replica kit. He found a XXL and my seamstress mom was able to re-cut and re-sew the garment to fit my teen frame.
It was only later I’d learn of the ugliness of that World Cup where South Africa would have heartbreak in the semifinals. The 40-year-old spinner Henry would only play one match in a losing cause against Sri-Lanka and wasn’t picked for a match against New Zealand where spin was sorely needed. His white captain didn’t trust the only black guy in the team.
On Saturday, I had the privilege of sharing a table with Henry at a swanky awards dinner of Fish Rite Hanover Park Cricket Club at Newlands Cricket Ground. It was an extraordinary moment for cricket. In this President’s Suite, where once exclusively white cricketers and sides would banquet at prizegivings, Hanover Park Cricket Club was claiming the space.
Now for the uninitiated, if you google Hanover Park you will most likely only find a bloody trail of murdered gang victims killed recently in fresh conflict in the suburb. You will read about harrowing poverty and rampant drug abuse. But you will probably not read much about the extraordinary story of Hanover Park Cricket Club.
Over the last eight years or so, chairperson Ashraf Allie and his colleagues have changed the narrative in Hanover Park – amidst all the fierce gang-related shootings. Those linked to the club are mostly employed, studying towards degrees and are daring to dream.
Is it a fluke then that Hanover Park has reached three Newlands Cricket Ground finals in their last five seasons? It can’t be an accident that their men’s and women’s senior teams have both won promotions to higher leagues?
For the past few months, I’ve been mentoring the club’s media co-ordinator Azeezah Gool. It was through her storytelling that she was inspired to enrol for a BA degree. It was through her storytelling that I came to learn of captain Shafwaan Doutie and 20-year-old vice-captain Carlyle Roberts.
Carlyle was the focus of a video Azeezah and I produced to promote this season’s T20 final. He won both the Players’ Player of the Season and Player of the Season trophies at the awards dinner. Shafwaan has been an inspirational leader and has defied the odds, beating cancer a few seasons ago to come back and guide his team to victory.
The club has managed to attract top sponsorships and partnerships with organisations in more affluent neighbourhoods because of how it’s run. Imagine then this recipe is taken to the rest of the community in Hanover Park and infects others with the positive spirit of the cricket club?
I wish I was still in love with our national cricket team 30 years later the way I was as a 14-year-old. At 70, Henry’s warm smile belies the pain he experienced over the years as a black cricketer. The same pain that has repeated itself over and over with different black players despite that referendum and the claim that the game was now being open to all who play it.
If you play cricket in Hanover Park, it is that much harder. You literally have to dodge bullets some days to get to the training field, practise on a sub-standard surface and not have the best clubhouse in the world. So, when they achieve the way they are it means so much more.
That is why I’d rather give my cricketing heart and my time supporting Hanover Park Cricket Club.
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Picture: Gasant Abarder