South Africa National Women's Cricket Team - History - First International Women's Tours of South Africa

First International Women's Tours of South Africa

The touring English side played nine tour matches in addition to the scheduled four Test matches, beginning with a one-day contest against a Western Province Combined XI. South Africa began their first women's Test match on 2 December 1960 at St George's Park, Port Elizabeth—the same venue as used for first men's Test match in the country in 1889—and ended in a draw. After another draw in the second Test, England claimed victory in the third by eight wickets, and a draw in the final Test gave the touring side a 1–0 series victory. The series saw South Africa become the fourth women's Test playing nation, after England and Australia who contested the first ever women's Test match in 1934, and New Zealand who played their first women's Test in 1935.

Due to South African apartheid laws, which introduced legal racial segregation to the country in 1948, no non-white (defined under the legislation as either "black", "coloured" or "Indian") player was eligible to play Test cricket for South Africa. In fact, overseas teams wishing to tour South Africa were also limited by these rules. These laws led to Basil D'Oliveira, a 'Cape Coloured' South African emigrating to England, where he began to play Test cricket. He was subsequently named as a late replacement as part of the England team to tour South African in 1968–69, but South African Prime Minister John Vorster refused to allow D'Oliveira into the country as part of the touring side, declaring: "We are not prepared to receive a team thrust upon us by people whose interests are not in the game but to gain certain political objectives which they do not even attempt to hide. The MCC team is not the team of the MCC but of the anti-apartheid movement." A week later, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) called off the tour. South Africa's cricket team toured Australia the following winter, but a tour of England in 1970, and of Australia in 1971–72 were both cancelled after anti-apartheid protests. Despite this growing sporting isolation, a New Zealand women's team toured South Africa in the 1971–72 season. Only three members of the 1960 South Africa team returned to compete against New Zealand: Jennifer Gove, Lorna Ward and Maureen Payne. New Zealand played six tour matches and three Test matches in a tour lasting just over a month spanning February and March 1972. New Zealand won the series 1–0, with both the first and the last Tests being drawn.