St George's Park History

Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Unification

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The criticisms leveled at SACBOC focussed the spotlight onto it’s affiliates who were still clinging to their racial national tournaments despite the pressure on SACBOC not to continue with the racial tournaments. The clamour for a single controlling body at provincial level was mooted. It was also propagated that provincial units should affiliate to SACBOC in place of racially orientated national cricket bodies.

In 1952 the Western Province Cricket Federation was established under the presidency of Abdol “Dol” Freeman. This was the first provincial unit to which all clubs in the area under the jurisdiction of Western Province were affiliated to. The success of the Western Federation inspired it to undertake a tour to Port Elizabeth and Durban in December, 1953, to market unification at this level. What made this trip so remarkable was that they travelled by lorry.

These were the pioneers: Matt Segers (manager), Abdul Noordien (captain), Tiny Abed, Lobo Abed, Abdol Freeman, Sydney Solomons, Jackie Truter, Paddy Thomas, Adam Sobotker, Cliffie Ravens, M Coetzee (vice-captain), I Lotief, T Hendricks, E Petersen, GT Holmes, E Rhode, A Brown (assist. manager), and I Shaik.

The trip was a success because the areas visited also established their own unified provincial cricket associations at a later stage.