Lives in Cricket No 27 - CB Llewellyn

9 A Need for Friends cricket mad, and there were few days in the summer that did not witness some match or other on its picturesque Oval. There were clubs galore – it is truly remarkable that so small a community should have turned out so many players of the calibre of G.C.B. [sic] Llewellyn, C.O.H.Sewell, Gordon White, M.Hathorn and A.D.Nourse. Cricketers who came with the military or as civil servants, included Major F.F.Crawford, an uncle of J.N.Crawford, and Lieut R.M.Poore. The colour of Llewellyn’s skin was not the subject of public discussion at that time, or at any time before 1970, but in the prevailing atmosphere in Natal, there was a troubling example. The very fast and very successful bowler Armien ‘Krom’ Hendricks from Western Province suffered from the systematic opposition by their cricket union (WPCU) to his representing the Province, and South Africa, as well as, increasingly, other teams. He had come to the front when his pace intimidated the men of Walter Read’s English tourists in 1891/92; he was originally nominated as one of the South African side which was due to visit Britain in 1894. Initially, the WPCU would have nothing to do with the expedition, but when their representatives did get involved, the fact that he was regarded as easily the fastest bowler in South Africa cut no ice with the Cape selectors. He was the son of a Dutch father – but his mother hailed from St Helena and he had risen through the ranks of non-white club cricket. The question of his selection became a political matter. Cecil Rhodes later told Pelham Warner: ‘They wanted me to send a black fellow called Hendricks to England, but I wouldn’t have it. They would have expected him to throw boomerangs during the luncheon interval.’ Under this sort of governance, the idea of a non-white player representing South Africa was politically unacceptable, and for a large proportion of the white population emotionally intolerable. In spite of George Lohmann’s expression of opinion that Hendricks’ exclusion was hardly wise, he was not selected. Hendricks’ opportunities were whittled down in spite of his continuing success at club level; he was excluded from the centrepiece match ‘Colonial-born v Home-born’ in October 1894 and from the Western Province team for the Currie Cup competition at Durban in 1895, though Natal did field Buck. In 1895/96, following devastating performances, Transvaal invited Hendricks to Johannesburg to enable the selectors to form an opinion. The WPCU refused to support his selection and were even able to prevent him from making the journey to Transvaal.