A brief history of South Africa's Benson & Hedges Series
The story of the first domestic floodlit cricket competition in the world
The older you get, the more you notice history repeating. Today (February 11), a much-hyped floodlit, white-ball, South African domestic cricket final goes ahead at a neutral Wanderers stadium. But don’t think the SA20 Johannesburg showpiece is a first. South African cricket fans experienced exactly the same thing forty-one years ago.
Despite my recent article on Cricbuzz (paywall warning) and my reminiscing with Allan Donald, Brian McMillan and Omar Henry, it’s still a little-known fact that South Africa was the first country to embrace floodlit provincial cricket. And that it was an absolute phenomenon. It peaked just before the internet came along and South Africa emerged from Apartheid isolation — meaning Googling won’t get you very far. Nor will Wikipedia.
But I’m lucky enough to be of a certain age. And I’ve begun to see it as my duty to immortalise this forgotten slice of cricket history. I’d actually like to write a book on it, but tracking down photos is proving nigh-on impossible. (Write to me if you find any in your attic, please!) What I have done in recent months is give up a few days of my life to trawl through well-buried online scorecards. And, more importantly, the primary sources you’ll find in the archives at the South African National Library.
And all that trawling of contemporary annuals, magazines and newspapers means I’m in a unique position to write the internet’s first history of South Africa’s Benson & Hedges Series, which ran from the 1981/82 season to the 1995/96 season.
It’s broad brush strokes only — mainly for brevity’s sake. And it needs a good sub-edit. But I hope scholars of cricket may find it a useful reference work. If you do find it of value in some way, just a reminder of the unpaid days it took to produce it. Days when I could have been pitching to editors for gigs that will pay the rent. If you feel it’s right to acknowledge that time, you can do so by buying me a virtual coffee (button below) or perhaps purchasing one of my books. That support might also make it realistic to expand on this work, or embark on other similar projects that require whole days going elbow-to-elbow with some committed geeks in libraries…
The South African National Library in Cape Town
The Benson & Hedges Series in South Africa: A brief history
1981/82
The inaugural South African Benson & Hedges Series began on 24th February 1982, when hosts Natal took on Northern Transvaal at the Jan Smuts ground in Pietermaritzburg. Natal won by 4 wickets, with Mike Procter leading the chase of 239 in 50 overs with 79.
Only two further league matches were scheduled, to be followed by a final at the Wanderers. Due to the arrival of the ‘rebel’ SAB XI side from England, however, these had to be rescheduled to take place over the space of four days in early April.
Thus Cape Town hosted its first match on 3rd April, 1982, when Western Province welcomed Eastern Province to the Green Point Stadium. At the time, it was the only passable venue in the city offering floodlights. Never designed as a cricket ground and surrounded by an athletics track, an artificial pitch was used. The hosts took the win by 16 runs as Stephen Jefferies’ four wickets helped them defend 188.
On 5th April, that first series then moved up to the Highveld, where Transvaal hosted Western Province at the Wanderers in Johannesburg. The winners would play Natal in the final the following day – though it’s unclear how this was decided given that only two league games had been played so far.
Following a four-wicket win in that last league encounter, Transvaal went on to defeat Natal in the final the next evening. A half-century by opener Barry Richards led Natal to 263 all out in 49.3 overs, with Hugh Page and the far more economical Francois Weideman picking up three scalps each. The home side hunted down the runs with nine balls to spare, Alvin Kallicharran and Graeme Pollock scoring 85 and 77 respectively.
That made Transvaal the first Benson & Hedges Night Series champions, though the logic of choosing the finalists in the abbreviated first tournament – where Eastern Province, Natal and Northern Transvaal had only one ‘league’ game but Transvaal and Western Province got two – remains uncertain.
1982/83
Running from November to March, the 1982/83 season saw a more rational tournament format, as well as the reduction to the 45-over allocation that would remain a feature of the series for almost its entire story. As in the first season, floodlit facilities remained the limitation. With only Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg and Johannesburg able to host games, all of which were scheduled for Wednesday evenings, Northern Transvaal and Eastern Province had to compete without the benefit of a home ground.
This time, there was a full round of ten league matches among the five sides, as well as two semi-finals, both played at the Wanderers. Transvaal defeated Western Province at the very same ‘Bullring’ in the final, comfortably chasing down a target of 276 as Henry Fotheringham posted 77 at the top of the order. (Earlier, Graham Gooch and Adrian Kuiper had opened the batting for ‘Province’, making 85 and 3 respectively.)
1983/84
Rain played a disruptive role in the 1983/84 series, which ran to the same format as the year before, albeit with Friday games added. Northern Transvaal now had a home ground, the Technikon Oval in Pretoria. And though such progress on the floodlight front was good for the competition, things took a step back in Pietermaritzburg when a malfunction led to dramatic flames in the sky and the abandonment of the series-opener between Natal and Northern Transvaal in early October. Plans were already afoot to install lights at Natal’s Kingsmead HQ in time for the following season – but the 83/84 final between the ‘Banana Boys’ and Eastern Province was played in neutral Johannesburg.
Natal cruised to the win by 7 wickets after E.P. posted a 124 that was as curious as it was paltry. Ian Daniell scored 85 at the top of the order whilst not one of his team-mates managed to get into double figures.
By now, night cricket had begun to take a real hold on the public imagination. That season’s Protea Assurance Cricket Annual claimed there was ‘almost a riot’ when the gates were locked at 5pm with 16,000 spectators crammed into the Green Point Stadium to see Western Province take on arch-rivals Transvaal.
1984/85
The momentum continued in the 1984/85 season, with more illumination plus a new composite team that would become one of cricket’s more fascinating oddities and attract something of a cult following. 15,000 spectators snapped up all the tickets at Kingsmead for Durban’s first floodlit game on 28th November. Helped by funding from the city council, the lights were claimed as the brightest in the country. Western Province spoiled the city’s premiere, however, with a crushing 151-run victory. Faoud Bacchus, a West Indian exiled for taking part in a rebel tour the season before, slammed 132 up front for the visitors.
Meanwhile, with some of the lesser-established or non-Currie Cup (aka top-flight first-class) provinces wanting to get in on the night cricket action, the composite Impalas were born. Assigned the colour purple and named for a ubiquitous Southern African antelope, they were a combination of players from four ‘minor’ regions that otherwise had little to do with each other: Border, Boland, Griquas and Orange Free State. A young Vrystaat fast bowler called Allan Donald would thus join several other notables as an Impalas alumnus. In what would become a recurring theme, they made do without a home ground for that first campaign.
Just as well that Eastern Province could rustle up a venue for the season-opener against said Impalas in October, then. Hence the only night series match that would be be played at the University of Port Elizabeth. It’s unclear why E.P. didn’t continue to play there in that final season before St. George’s Park joined the floodlights bandwagon, but they reverted to playing away for the rest of the series.
That game was also noteworthy for another piece of Impalas trivia: Border player Daryll Cullinan making 80 at 17 years of age.
Not even Cricinfo had registered appearances for the Impalas on these players’ biographies at the time of writing, by the way. This is cricket pub quiz gold to keep buried tight beneath one’s anorak.
With the schedule now expanded once again to accommodate the new team, 130,000 spectators were quoted as attending matches across the season. And 20,000 turned up for the final in Johannesburg, where Transvaal took an easy seven-wicket win over Northern Transvaal in their close neighbour’s first appearance in the showpiece.
1985/86
1985/86 saw Western Province claim its first title, though not without drama along the way as its match against the Impalas at Green Point had to be abandoned due to wind damaging the stadium roof. In the final against Northern Transvaal, which was played at a sparsely-attended Wanderers despite both sides having used their makeshift home venues throughout the regular season, Kenny McEwan scored an undefeated 102 batting at four, as WP posted 265/4. Northerns lost by 12 runs.
Eastern Province, meanwhile, made a sound start to life under the new giant lamps at St George’s Park. After playing a full schedule of home games there, David Richardson’s side also hosted Adrian Kuiper’s WP for a semi-final – albeit one they lost handsomely after posting another inadequate total.
1986/87
1986/87 was a breakout year for South Africa’s venues. Northern Transvaal moved into their new, floodlit, purpose-built stadium: Centurion Park. At the time, this was an undeveloped area known as Verwoerdburg. Later, when reminders of Apartheid politicians as Hendrik Verwoerd became inappropriate, the cricket ground provided a convenient alternative name for the bustling suburb: it’s now simply called Centurion.
Meanwhile, after some years of wrangling with local residents, the pylons finally went up at iconic Newlands in Cape Town. Green Point would no longer host cricket. The latter was later demolished, though the precinct would become the site for the Cape Town Stadium built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
The Impalas, meanwhile, finally got a home by adopting the Harmony Ground in the depressing little mining town of Virginia.
A two-leg, home-and-away format for the semi-finals was introduced that season, though both first legs were rained out on this occasion. Western Province and Transvaal advanced to the final after winning their ‘second-leg’ semis. The season-closer was played under the new Newlands lights. Craig Matthews took four wickets as the hosts dismissed their intense rivals for 164, well short of the 205 Kuiper’s men had posted in the early evening.
1987/88
All the major provinces now had home venues suitable for night cricket, and the frenzy to build floodlights was complete. But the 1987/88 season was a significant one for the Impalas as Orange Free State broke away from the composite side to go it alone. That grew the Benson & Hedges Night Series into a seven-team competition, increasing the league fixture list to 21 matches.
With OFS now playing at Harmony – apart from one game at the University Oval in Bloemfontein – the Impalas were left looking for a home ground once more. They settled on the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch, which fell into the Boland region. Far from ideal for cricket, games on this rectangular rugby ground were also played on an artificial pitch. Yet it still hosted a big game that year as the Impalas – now featuring a certain Mickey Arthur at the top of the order – made the semi-finals for the first time. Close neighbours Western Province popped along the highway from Cape Town for the first leg, but it was a mismatch that ended in a 143-run defeat for the Impalas.
While WP also brushed the composite team aside in the return fixture, Transvaal needed a third leg to dispense with Eastern Province – now in their second year under the captaincy of Kepler Wessels, who had returned from his time in Australia – in the other semi-final series.
The final was played in Johannesburg, but it didn’t stop WP taking the trophy once again. Kuiper took four wickets as the home side were restricted to a modest 189 all out, a score WP chased down with an over and five wickets to spare.
1988/89
With the 1980s almost at an end, the Benson & Hedges Night Series was still ‘the only floodlit interprovincial competition in the world’, according to the 1989 Annual. With South Africa still a couple of years away from a return to international cricket, provinces were packed with world-class players (including numerous West Indian ‘rebels’ and a fair few English and Australian hired guns) and fuelled by a keen provincial rivalry that was the best available proxy for playing for their country. Summer without night cricket was by now almost inconceivable, and the tournament was reaching its absolute peak.
The 1988/89 season saw yet another move for the migrating Impalas, with King William’s Town in the Border region added to the list of quirky venues the competition visited. But this time they didn’t advance so far in the competition, as their former member Orange Free State made it to the final for the first time.
In a match that gave a glimpse into South Africa’s international future, the unheralded Free Staters travelled to Cape Town to take on a Western Province team looking for the third straight title. And who should produce the goods as they posted 213/8 in their 45 overs? A young Hansie Cronje. He made 71 at the top of the order, leading a big second-wicket partnership with Ashley Metcalfe.
Western Province were soon reeling at 19/5, with Donald doing the damage alongside Corrie van Zyl. The frightening speedster ended up with figures of 4/19 in seven overs as WP crumbled for 152. Only Peter Kirsten stood firm, registering 72 of those runs.
1989/90
The Impalas’ ground-hopping continued in the 1989/90 season as the motley crew endured its second ‘breakaway’. This time Border left the setup to go its own way – and would do so at its own Buffalo Park ground in East London. The Impalas were now limited to players from Boland and Griqualand West…and back to Stellenbosch they went.
Reigning champions Free State, meanwhile, moved into a new permanent home in Bloemfontein, then known as Springbok Park. Distant Virginia would continue to host occasional games in the manner of an English county’s ‘out ground’, but only for a couple more years.
Perhaps inspired by Free State’s breakthrough a year earlier, Eastern Province got its hands on the trophy for the first time in the March 1990 final. It also settled that score from 1983/84 by taking down Natal. The match in Durban was a true thriller, going down to the last ball after the hosts had posted 202 all out.
Wessels had moulded a powerful EP unit by that time, but Natal had a side featuring Jonty Rhodes, Andrew Hudson and (in an interprovincial swap that was rare for the time) Henry Fotheringham. And their skipper that year? Kim Hughes! The Aussie, who had been banned for leading a rebel tour to South Africa, had signed on with the province for what would be his last couple of seasons before retirement.
1990/91
1990/91 was the last full season of international cricketing isolation for South Africa. As had become standard procedure, a clutch of league games were scheduled for the festive season – this time four in four nights from the 18th to the 21st of December. (In the absence of Tests, the Christmas/New Year period was still reserved for first-class cricket.)
The Impalas faced an uncertain future, with talk of Western Transvaal and Eastern Transvaal joining their setup. For this season however, it was back to the bad old days of having no home ground at all.
Natal made their second straight final but could only manage 164/8 in their 45 overs after travelling to Newlands. Western Province, with a batting order now made up of Gary Kirsten, Kenny Jackson, Cullinan, Kuiper, Mike Voss and Brian McMillan, had little trouble hunting those down.
Almost a decade into night cricket in South Africa, the Annual noted in its season review that English counties were ‘looking at night cricket’ following trial matches…
1991/92
In November 1991, South Africa’s cricketers made a memorable return to the international stage as they took on India in Calcutta, the start of a three-match ODI series. That they were able to pick up a win in that series – albeit the ‘dead’ third game – said much for the quality of limited-overs competition (not only the B&H Night Series, but also the red-ball Nissan Shield) back home.
The return to the international fold was also a game-changer for domestic cricket, of course. The intensity and crowds were always going to decline. But in the days before T20 leagues and an unsustainably crowded calendar, it wasn’t exactly a drop off the cliff. There were still plenty of weeks in summer when the big-name players would be available for their provinces.
The 1991/92 final was a case in point, with Wessels leading Eastern Province to the trophy mere days after skippering South Africa in their famously unlucky World Cup semi-final in Sydney. Making 103 as his team chased down a target of 245 against Western Province in Johannesburg – Newlands was a construction site as South Africa’s grounds re-invented themselves once again in preparation for international cricket – would have provided some measure of consolation.
The Impalas had indeed gotten Western/Eastern Transvaal to join their crusade that year. They hadn’t been able to help with a home ground – but the increased player pool did get them into the semi-finals once again.
1992/93
For 1992/93 a move to the PAM Brink Stadium in Springs (Eastern Transvaal) was arranged, but the Impalas’ results took a dive once again. And for the first time, the B&H Series had more than just provincial red-ball fixtures to consider when it came to the schedule. India were touring for a full series over the festive season, and the B&H Series could no longer be the showpiece. Its league games bookended the season in October and March, with the final played well into April.
In a repeat of the very first showpiece, 11 years earlier almost to the day, Natal took on Transvaal. This time they were hosting – and they even had Clive Rice, Transvaal icon and veteran of that day in 1982, in their ranks after a switch to green for the twilight of his career. Rhodes skippered, but Natal’s poor record in finals continued as they went down to Jimmy Cook’s men by a single, agonising run despite Hudson’s 85. Rice, incidentally, was run out for a duck.
1993/94
With the 1993/94 incoming tour by Australia only set for February, the Night Series reclaimed its December dates with gusto. There were 11 games between the 15th and 23rd of the month, including three on the opening day in that period. There were, after all, a huge number of games to get through now that Boland had become the third team to hive off from the Impalas. That gave the Danie Craven Stadium – which would be hosting Rugby World Cup matches the following year! – one final B&H Series hurrah.
That season, which also saw more ‘modern’ tones replace the blinding 80s shades along with a switch to a 50-over format, would be the last for the plucky Impalas. With Griqualand West, Eastern and Western Transvaal all making plans to enter the competition in their own right the following year, there were no ‘minor’ provinces left to make up a composite team. Their journey came to an end in Port Elizabeth in January, where they registered the last of many heavy defeats – this time by 91 runs.
Natal lost yet another final, again at Kingsmead. This time it was Free State – now led by Cronje – who inflicted the pain. Hudson top-scored for the hosts once again with 47 batting first, but had no support in the face of an onslaught by Donald (4/21 in 8) and Bradley Player (5/27 in 10). The men in green folded for 103 – nowhere near enough.
1994/95
By 1994/95, quantity was beginning to triumph over quality. The Impalas now having split into three sides, there were 11 teams in the competition and a bloated list of fixtures. With hindsight, it was an odd way to go considering the dwindling availability of star players and ongoing growth in South Africa’s international schedule.
Still, a not insignificant 221,000 spectators were quoted as having attended matches across the season. Residents of Kimberley (Griqualand West) and Fochville (Western Transvaal) got to see the Benson & Hedges Series for the first time. The PAM Brink Stadium was now home to Eastern Transvaal (soon to be Easterns), while Boland moved into its new Boland Bank Park in Paarl. It’s remarkable how quickly floodlights had become a standard feature even at relatively minor venues.
Boland, with a certain Marais Erasmus skippering, actually topped the table that season. But it was Free State and Eastern Province who squared up in the final, which was played in Bloemfontein for the first time. Having already scored two away wins in season deciders, Free State had no difficulty getting the job done at home after they posted 291/8 in their 50 overs (Louis Wilkinson 83, Cronje 61). Wessels’ men could only manage 178/8 in response, Donald going wicketless but Nicky Boje picking up four.
1995/96
And so to the final chapter. The night series returned to 45 overs for what would prove to be the last season of Benson & Hedges sponsorship. Even though local night cricket could never be expected to retain the hype it had at its isolation-era peak, the Wanderers still attracted a full house as Free State completed a hat-trick, defeating Transvaal by a whopping 141 runs in the final. Their 290/6, built on some power-hitting by Player (in at three a second pinch-hitter, some brain-frying innovation at the time) on his way to 83, was the highest posted in any 45-over final.
At one point in that game on 29th March, play was held up due to a floodlight failure. It was almost too poetic to be true. Fifteen finals after Benson & Hedges had gambled on floodlit provincial cricket in South Africa, at the same venue as the very first of them, what better way to close the door on an era?
Think I can string a sentence together? Then get stuck into one of my books! (Yes, they’re written under a different name…)
I still have a brand new box of 6 Benson and Hedges 156 cricket balls from my grandfather