If you ask any cricket fan to name the greatest fast bowler in history, the name of William Henry “Krom” Hendricks probably would not feature. Except for Jonty Winch, Richard Parry and Andre Odendaal, for whom Hendricks could easily top any South African, if not international, list.
Winch and Parry are the authors of Too Black To Wear White: The Remarkable Story of Krom Hendricks, a Cricket Hero who was Rejected by Cecil John Rhodes’s Empire, which tells the story of the player from the Bo-Kaap who many felt was the best and fastest bowler of his generation and who, until recently, was subjected to being a footnote in South African cricket history. In one game, Hendricks had figures of 9 wickets for no runs.
In their book, the authors bring Hendricks to life and documents his hitherto unknown battle against the colonial cricket establishment called the Western Province Cricket Club and the Western Province Cricket Union – run by white civil servants who served in Rhodes’ government in the late 19th century.
Winch and Parry – in their book and in a discussion facilitated by Odendaal, a history professor and former first-class cricket player under the banner of the non-racial South African Council On Sport (SACOS) at the Book Lounge this week – destroyed many myths surrounding the history of cricket in South Africa.
These include the myth that cricket was always a white sport in South Africa. Parry, a retired tax expert who now dedicates his time to writing about cricket history, said cricket was the most popular sport among poor people in Cape Town in the 19th century.
“People played cricket everywhere, using whatever material they could find. But they also had many formal leagues, including in the Bo-Kaap where Hendricks came from and played.”
In recording the true history of South African cricket, Parry and Winch are driven by a commitment to correct an injustice against a player such as Hendricks, who has been airbrushed out of history.
Hendricks became the first player in the world to be rejected to play for his country because of his race, when Cecil John Rhodes vetoed a proposal that he be picked to play in a touring team against England in 1894. This came despite Hendricks almost single-handedly destroying an English touring team when he played for the South African Malay team two years earlier.
Hendricks’ main opposition came from the president of the WPCC, William Henry Milton, who worked as Rhodes’s private secretary and who was ably assisted in his attempt at promoting white hegemonic rule in Cape Town by the founding editor of the Cape Times, Frederick York St Leger, the authors wrote.
Many of the international players who played against Hendricks identified him as the fastest bowler they ever played against, with some feigning sickness or disappearing from the field when it came to their turn to bat against him.
Hendricks’s name was proposed by the Transvaal Cricket Union for inclusion in the South African team to play in England, but Rhodes whispered in the ear of his proxy, Milton, who vetoed the proposal. But they did not stop there. Over a period of 10 years, the white establishment blocked him from playing league cricket and even club cricket because they did not want white cricketers to be shown up by a “Cape coloured boy”, the way in which Hendricks was described in official South African cricket history manuals until recently.
Despite the ban, Hendricks continued playing until he was about 60 and drew larger crowds than those at Newlands, the official home of the WPCC. “He was a real hero,” said Parry.
Hendricks’s ban officially began the racialisation of South African cricket. If he and many other talented black players of his generation and later generations had been allowed to play for their country, things could have been completely different in what is still called “the gentlemen’s game”.
The people who discriminated against Hendricks were not gentlemen. They were evil racist and colonialists who believed in spreading white values throughout the world. Some of them still walk among us today. If you are interested in the real history of South African cricket, you must read this book.
(First published as a Thinking Allowed column in the Weekend Argus on Saturday 8 February 2020)
