The Story of an African Game. BLACK CRICKETERS SOUTH AFRICA 1850-2003. Andre Odendaal

DavidPhilip, 2003, first edition. Hard cover with dust cover. Large size. 367 pages. Good condition. Tightly bound and clean text. Book dealer stamp in front. The dust cover is edgeworn. Over 2 kg.

The Story of an African Game is a ground-breaking history of black South African cricket that debunks the myth that blacks have no cricketing culture or history to speak of. The value of the book lies not simply in its central argument - that cricket grew and thrived in black communities in the Eastern Cape from as early as the 1850s until the ravages of apartheid all but destroyed it - but in the vivid documentary evidence provided by the author. Over 200 photographs graphically depict the game in African communities and show how in many respects it closely mirrored cricket’s development in ‘white’ South Africa and in other British colonies such as India, the West Indies and Australia.