Double Headers

110 of the criteria for being classified as ‘first-class’. SACB inter-provincial games continued until 1990/91, the last season before unified cricket finally came to the country under the newly-formed United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA). Towards the end of the 1990s the UCBSA ruled retrospectively that the three-day inter-provincial games played under the auspices of SACBOC/ SACB between 1971/72 and 1990/91, together with a small number of representative games from the same period, should be ranked as first- class. Following assembly of the scores of the matches concerned by devoted statisticians in South Africa, that ruling has since been accepted by the majority of statisticians worldwide, including by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians in 2006. 90 This ruling brings into play the possibility of further double-headers, based on the part of the definition given in the Introduction to this book which refers to teams representing the same geographical area - even though, in the iniquitous circumstances then applying in South Africa, the two provincial sides assuredly were not representing the same cricketing entities, as the SACA and SACBOC/SACB provincial administrations were entirely separate from each other. Only four SACBOC/SACB provincial sides – those representing Transvaal, Natal, and Eastern and Western Provinces – played in the three-day, first- class competitions, and so it was only these four sides who could have participated in matches simultaneously with their SACA namesakes. This actually happened on a large number of occasions. There were in total 162 occasions when a SACBOC/SACB team was playing a match at the same time as either the SACA ‘A’ or ‘B’ team from the same province, and a further 79 occasions when a provincial SACBOC/SACB side was playing a first-class match at the same time as both the SACA A and B teams were playing. These 79 instances finally give us our first triple-headers, with three teams in the field at the same time each representing the same geographical area and bearing the same name (apart from the ‘B’ suffix for the SACA unions’ second elevens). These matches break down between the provinces as follows: Double-headers Triple-headers Seasons of first and last triple-headers Transvaal 39 25 1971/72 – 1988/89 Natal 36 26 1971/72 – 1990/91 Western Province 41 14 1975/76 – 1989/90 Eastern Province 46 14 1977/78 – 1990/91 The triple-headers most commonly took place over the Christmas and New Year holiday periods. Western Province actually recorded as many as four triple-headers in the 1980/81 season , in instances starting on Boxing Day 1980, 30 December 1980 or 1 January 1981, 15 or 16 January 1981, and 19 or 21 February 1981. Again, the number of double- and triple-header instances identified during 90 See the ACS International Yearbook for 2007, page 361. South Africa - Welcome to the triple-header