Jon Gemmell analyses the relationship between sport and politics through a historical analysis of South African cricket.

This book explores how cricket in South Africa was shaped by society and society by cricket. It demonstrates the centrality of cricket in the evolving relationship between culture, sport and politics starting with South Africa as the beating heart of the imperial project and ending with the country as an international pariah. The contributors explore the tensions between fragmentation and unity, on and off the pitch, in the context of the racist ideology of empire, its ‘arrested development’ and the reliance of South Africa on a racially based exploitative labour system. This edited collection uncovers the hidden history of cricket, society, and empire in defining a multiplicity of South African identities, and recognises the achievements of forgotten players and their impact.

Firmly situating South African teams, players, and associations in the international framework in which they have to compete, South Africa and the Global Game: Football, Apartheid, and Beyond presents an interdisciplinary analysis of how and why South Africa underwent a remarkable transformation from a pariah in world sport to the first African host of a World Cup in 2010. Written by an eminent team of scholars, this special issue and book aims to examine the importance of football in South African society, revealing how the black oppression transformed a colonial game into a force for political, cultural and social liberation. It explores how the hosting of the 2010 World Cup aims to enhance the prestige of the post-apartheid nation, to generate economic growth and stimulate Pan-African pride. Among the themes dealt with are race and racism, class and gender dynamics, social identities, mass media and culture, and globalization. This collection of original and insightful essays will appeal to specialists in African Studies, Cultural Studies, and Sport Studies, as well as to non-specialist readers seeking to inform themselves ahead of the 2010 World Cup. This book was published as a special issue of Soccer and Society.

How Sanctions Work surveys theories of international sanctions and offers detailed analyses of the effect of sanctions on apartheid South Africa. Chapters by respected international experts cover cultural isolation, oil and military embargoes, trade boycotts, financial sanctions and divestment, consequences for black South Africans, and regional effects. The book shows how sanctions both directly and indirectly hurt the apartheid regime while in some cases offering succour to the anti-apartheid movement.

Cecil John Rhodes once said he had only met two creators in South Africa: himself and James Douglas Logan, the Scottish-born founder of Matjiesfontein. Logan immigrated to South Africa in 1877 at the age of nineteen and almost immediately began amassing a fortune through business, politics and his high-profile association with that most favoured of imperial pastimes – cricket. Empire, War & Cricket in South Africa explores in detail how Matjiesfontein was created and how Logan developed this little Karoo town into a renowned health resort, attracting the rich and famous – including South African novelist Olive Schreiner and England cricketer George Lohmann. But, above all, this is the untold story of how James Logan was instrumental in developing the game of cricket in South Africa at a time when the country was heading towards war with the British Empire. In Empire, War & Cricket in South Africa, readers will learn how one of the first international cricket matches between South Africa and England took place at Matjiesfontein; explore the controversial 1901 South African cricket tour to England in the midst of the Anglo-Boer War; read the amazing story of how Logan once had the captain and manager of England’s cricket team arrested as they boarded their ship home; and discover Logan’s close relationship with Rhodes and how their ‘shady dealings’ brought down the premier’s first government. Illustrated throughout with rare photographs and documents, Empire, War & Cricket in South Africa is a unique social and political history of the workings of the British Empire in South Africa during the late nineteenth century; a well-researched and fascinating biography of the man who gave us Matjiesfontein; and an entertaining and at times unbelievable story of cricket’s origins in South Africa.

THE STORY OF AN AFRICAN GAME is a ground-breaking book, the first to cover in detail the history and experiences of black African cricketers in South Africa. It is long overdue, coming 195 years after the first recorded game of cricket in this country was played at the Green Point Common, Cape Town, in 1808. This is a book that will forever change the way we look at South Africa's cricket history and help us understand where the game is heading in the future.

'Caught Behind' chronicles the events and political intrigue that led to South Africa's cricket isolation in the apartheid era and its eventual readmission and throws new light on the role of black cricket and black cricketers in South Africa, who until recently were omitted from the country's sporting history.