Cricket and conquest: Volume 1: 1795-1914

Andre Odendaal is a historian, writer, former, first-class cricketer, non-racial sports activist and CEO of the Cape Cobras and famous Newlands Cricket Ground. He is honorary Professor in History and Heritage Studies at the University of the Western Cape. He was awarded the President's Award for sport in 2001 for his contributions to the sports struggle. He has a PhD from Cambridge University and spent thirteen years at the UWC, where he focused on public history and founded the Mayibuye Centre for History and Culture in South Africa. He was also founding Director of the Robben Island Museum, the first national heritage institution of the new democracy. His main research areas are the social history of sport and the history of the liberation struggle. His nine books include Vukani Bantu! (1984); Liberation Chabalala (1993 with Roger Field); The Story of an African Game(2003, co-published with the HSRC) and The Founders (2012) on the origins of the ANC and the struggle for democracy in South Africa. His work has also been published in Britain and the USA and has been shortlisted for the Sanlam Prize for literature and the UK Cricket Society Book of the Year.

Introduction; Part I: war game: cricket, conquest and colonialism in Southern Africa 1795-1870s; 1. Cricket comes by boat to Africa; 2. First port of call: Cape Town, 1795 onwards; 3. Second port of call: The eastern Cape 1810s onwards; 4. The beginnings of a unique African cricket tradition; 5. Berthing in Port Natal, 1840s onwards; 6. Cricket reaches the interior Highveld: The Boer Republics, 1850s onwards; 7. The New Rush: Diamonds, dust and cricket in a new territory called Griqualand West, 1870s onwards; 8. Southern Africa and the spread of cricket across the world; Part II: Africa's first competitions, 1876 to 1890s; 9. Cricket, war and change; 10. Champion Bat ushers in new era: The launch of Inter-Town tournaments, 1875/76 onwards; 11. 'Native' Champions: A second Inter-Town tournament, 1884/85 onwards; 12. Abantu nabaNgesi ('The people and the English'): Cricket, colour and citizenship in the 1880s; 13. The MCC of the Cape Colony: Stiff upper lips in the 'classaic and perennially fragrant metropolis'; 14. The balance shifts from the Military to the Money: The rise of Kimberley and the birth of Johannesburg; 15. Subjugated memory: Reconstituting the statistical record of cricket (The Inter- Town Tournaments, 1876-1898); Part III: The doors open: The first International tour and the vision of an inclusive future, 1888-1892; 16. 'Time for South Africa to send Home something besides gold, diamonds and millionaires': From Inter-Town to International cricket; 17. First international team arrives in Africa; 18. Journey that inscribed Empire and Cricket onto the landscape of a sub-continent; 19. The first South African team and test matches; 20. 'Home', 'New Chums' and the assertion of South African cricket identities; 21. 'Gentlemen, we beg you to reconsider your decision': The position of African cricketers going into the 1890s; 22. 'The most gorgeous of Eastern spectacles': A third Inter-Town Tournament launched, January 1890; 23. The formation of the South Africa Cricket Association, April 1890; 24. Cricket and the Imperial mission: The rise of Johannesburg and the first Currie Cup; 25. 'What Man's Accomplish'd Ye Can Do': The first black national team, April 1891.26. Demon Spofforth of Africa: Black cricketers push for an inclusive system and get their first taste of international competition, March 1892.