by The Professor » Thu Sep 29, 2016 7:47 am
On this day in 1876 the first non-White South African cricketer, Charlie Llewellyn was born.
Llewellyn was born out of wedlock to an English father and a black mother. Being a mixed race youngster was difficult in that time and Llewllyn struggled through his formative years.
Llewllyn’s ability as a hard hitting left-handed batsman, slow left arm bowler and a great fielder, particularly at mid-off coupled with his relative lightness of skin allowed him to be selected for the South African team despite the race bar on many other more dark skinned compatriots. He made his Test debut for South Africa against England at Johannesburg on 2 March 1896, aged 19 years and 155 days. He did not perform well and was not reselected for the next three years where his domestic form forced a recall for the 1898/99 series against England.
At the end of the series, dropped again and frustrated by the racial inequality in South Africa, Llewellyn joined Hampshire where he would stay for a decade. Between 1899 and 1910 he hit 8,772 runs for the county, average 27.58, took 711 wickets for 24.66 runs apiece and brought off 136 catches. Five times he scored over 1,000 runs and five times dismissed more than 100 batsmen in a season, achieving the double in 1901 and repeating the performance in all matches in 1908 and 1910. One of his best all-round feats was against Somerset at Taunton in 1901 when he played an innings of 153 in one hundred minutes and took 10 for 183 runs. He even made an appearance for an English XI against Australia being a rare example of a player to play Tests for two teams. In the same year he played for England, he was recalled to the South Africa side where he, yet again, faced Australia.
His performances for Hampshire and South Africa, for whom he was now playing more regularly, saw him named as of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year in 1910. He retired at the end of the Australia series in 1910 but came out of retirement in 1912 to play in the Triangular Tournament against Australia and England. He re-retired after that tournament after playing 15 Tests (five against England and ten against Australia), scored 544 runs at 20.14 and 48 wickets at 29.60.
While Llewellyn was the first non-white South African Test cricketer, it was not until November 1992 that South Africa had its second.
"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."