Sporting rivalry that shaped a friendship
A new exhibition tracks the history of India’s relations with South Africa by celebrating the countries’ shared love of bat and ball
THE role of cricket in forging the relationship between South Africa and India is celebrated in an exhibition now on in Johannesburg.
The Cricket Connects exhibition at the Wanderers Stadium details the history of the sport from as early as the 19th century.
Prashant Kidambi, director of the University of Leicester’s Centre for Urban History, helped to curate the exhibition, which is part of the Festival of India 2014.
The exhibition details how India helped South Africa return to the international
Cricket relations started with the formation of the early Indian cricket clubs in South Africa in the 1890s
cricket stage after the end of apartheid.
Cricket had established itself as a popular sport in India by the end of the 19th century and now formed a binding force for the country, said the Indian consul general in Johannesburg, Randhir Jaiswal.
Consequently, he said, cricket became a very important way for migrant Indian communities in South Africa to interact with each other and with other “non-European” races.
“The relations between the two countries took a blow in 1948 when the National Party came to power in South Africa and established apartheid,” said Jaiswal.
“India became the first country to close its embassy and was seen as a main opponent of apartheid until racial segregation began to be phased out.
“India’s decision to support South Africa’s reentry into international cricket at a meeting of the International Cricket Council was seen as an important endorsement for South Africa,” he said.
“Following the meeting, the South African team toured India in 1991, and the Indian side toured South Africa in 1992/3 — the first official tour by a non-white team in the country.”
Kidambi said the exhibition tried to tell the story of Indo-South African cricket relations, whose “long history” started with the formation of the early Indian cricket clubs in South Africa (mostly in Durban and other parts of the then Natal) in the 1890s.
Another strand was the return of South Africa to international cricket and India’s role in facilitating that, said Kidambi.
The exhibition also included highlights of the subsequent course of the sporting relationship, such as the World Cup of 2003 — the first held in Africa — and the Indian Premier League tournament that was held in South Africa in 2009.
“There are about 175 images sourced for this exhibition,” said Kidambi.
“Some of these were lent to us by Dr Goolam Vahed, a distinguished historian of Indian communities in South Africa. The others came from a variety of sources — Indian newspapers, archival collections and the private collections of photographers who have covered cricket,” he said.
The exhibition runs at the Wanderers until August 15 and then moves to Kingsmead in Durban, where it will run until August 31.