These days the game of cricket is very popular in SA with a number of matches being played every day.
In the summer months, and well into autumn, with a number of interprovincial and so many franchise games being played, and often with an international touring team making its way around the country, the game is expanding at a tremendous rate. To be honest, there are occasions when I am uncertain which team is playing which and which franchise a particular player plays for.
However, while I was growing up during the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, the game was very simple. There were only four to six provinces involved in Section A of the Currie Cup with Natal and Transvaal (now KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng) usually winning the Currie Cup each season, and it was pretty easy to follow the outcome of games via the newspapers each morning, with no television even in sight.
At the time we lived in Rondebosch, about 2km from Newlands, where Western Province would each season play a total of only three home games, along with the same number of away matches.
WP had a few international representatives at the time, including a solid opening batsman Dick Westcott, fast-medium bowler Eddie Fuller who had just returned from the successful 1955 tour of England, and all-rounder Clive van Ryneveld, while the SA captain who had led the SA team in England, the popular Jack Cheetham, had just retired.
My brother Mike, 15 months older than me, and I would walk to the ground. We would have the princely sum of 2/6 (25c) each with us. Tickets were one shilling and ninepence, which left us with 9p to spend on a cold drink or an ice-cream during the breaks.
Before the match started and during the 40-minute lunch and 20-minute tea breaks, spectators were allowed to play on the field as long as soft tennis balls were used and often there would be a few hundred youngsters, all playing their own games, with balls whizzing around rather dangerously.
We were of course to stay clear of the covered pitch in the middle of the ground.
These days, whenever the Newlands ground appears on TV, I can, in all honestly, tell my grandchildren that I have played on that hallowed ground!
I recall a game against Eastern Province in early 1956, which WP won easily after EP collapsed in their second inning. They depended on their international all-rounder Anton Murray, and when he failed, the whole team failed.
WP, under the inspired leadership of Van Ryneveld, did so well that1955-56 summer that they won the Currie Cup, upsetting the Natal-Transvaal winning streak. We were so proud of our team.
For a 10-year-old lad those were days to savour and it seemed the sun never stopped shining.
Matches seen then bring back pleasant memories and I can recall snippets from games of almost 70 years ago much easier than matches I watched or reported on as a cricket writer in recent times.
After the day’s play ended at 6.30pm, Mike and I would walk back home, contented, our faces burnt by the sun as we recalled what had happened on the field.
