Allen’s talk hit me for six
You might be one of those people who (like me) are obsessed with the sport of cricket, but, have you ever thought about its origins and its development in our country and around the world?
Part of me is also deeply captivated by colonial history and the tales of infamous personalities such as Cecil John Rhodes and company, too.
So, what better way to peak my interest than through a book covering innumerable aspects of the Victorian Era, the Anglo Boer War, the Randlords, money politics, race and cricket, of course, to name just a few?
When Dean Allen, lecturer, historian, speaker and author of the intensively well-researched book “Empire, War and Cricket in South Africa”, was set to give a talk on his recently released work at the East Rand branch of the University of the Third Age (U3A) at the Benoni Country Club on Wednesday, March 9, I immediately ensured that I cleared space in my busy sport reporting schedule to hear him speak.
I was completely engrossed in the stories that Allen shared with the audience.
He introduced me and many others to an almost lost figure in South Africa at the end of the 19th Century and early 20th Century, a certain crafty Scotsman named James Douglas Logan who, at the tender age of 19, left the class lifestyle in Britain to head to Australia.
He never got Down Under, however, as he timed his arrival at the Cape perfectly with the rapid growth of the railways.
Logan quickly made friends and rose as a businessman (and later as a Cape politician) with acuity and ingenuity.
The high-flying opportune Scot also turned what was once a one-horse Karoo town, Matjiesfontein, into a health resort for the rich and famous of the time and a cricketing haven in the most obscure little place.
Rhodes once said he had only met two creators in South Africa: himself and James Douglas Logan, the Scottish-born founder of Matjiesfontein.
A media darling, Logan was one of the first tenderpreneurs in South Africa and used that most British of sports, cricket, to push his own financial and social agenda.
I could delve further and deeper into this story, but you will only truly appreciate Logan’s influence (both good and bad) on modern society and southern African cricket once you start turning the pages of Allen’s book.
With colonial statues and symbols falling all over the place and the debate around the historical legacy of men like Rhodes, and now Logan, a hot topic it is (like Logan’s arrival in the Cape) an apt time to be reading this book and to gain more insight.
I, for one, am already planning a trip to the Karoo.
Visit www.deanallen.co.za for more information about the book and the author or follow him on Twitter @EmpireCricketSA.
LISTEN to Dean Allen chat with City Times journalist Logan Green here :
