St George's Park History

Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Unification

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In March, 1977, sports administrators met at Tills Crescent in Durban and vowed to recapture SACBOC from Rashid Varachia.

On September 25, 1977, WPCB, NCB, EPCA, TCB and GWCB met at Kimberley. They resolved to establish the South African Non-Racial Cricket Committee which was mandated to recapture SACBOC.

At a meeting in Johannesburg on November 13, 1977, it was decided that the entire executive should be elected from the Western Province Cricket Board to save costs. The cricket associations that attended the Tills Crescent meeting were augmented by the South African Senior Schools Sports Association, the South African Primary School Sport Association and South Western Districts Cricket Association. The new national cricket body became the South African Cricket Board. The following officials were elected:

President: Hassan Howa.
V President: Sheik Gamief Booley.
Sec: Wahied Kazi.
Treasurer: Barney Liendertz.
Records Clerk: Lionel Smith.

The new board provided inter-provincial cricket at A & B level as well as for under 21, under 19, and under 16 divisions.

The South African Cricket Board submitted a memorandum to the International Cricket Conference in 1978 in which it was stated that the sports policy statement announced by the Minister of Sport in 1976 continued to take ethnicity into account. A further memorandum was submitted in 1979 in which it described the minimum requirements for non-racial sports. They stated that open membership for all clubs should be a basic requirement. They also propagated the establishment of a single, non-racial controlling body at local, national, and international level. Another requirement was equal opportunities for all sportsmen and sportswomen.

SABC’s communication with the ICC successfully blocked SACU’s readmission to the international arena. It was, however, unsuccessful when it applied in 1985 for associate membership to the ICC.