André Odendaal (born 4 May 1954) is a South African historian and former

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

er.

Education

Odendaal attended Queen's College in Queenstown,

Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch University (SU) (, ) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant university in Sub-Sahara ...

, and

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

, where he gained a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in History.

Cricket career

Odendaal played for

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 1980 and 1983, scoring 61, his only first-class fifty, on debut against

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

. He played nine matches in 1980, scoring 325 runs at an average of 23.21. He played in the annual match against

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

, but rain washed out the match before Cambridge could bat. He also played two

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...

matches for Combined Universities. On his debut he scored 74 against

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

and won the

Man of the match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

award. He played ten matches for Boland in 1980–81 and 1981–82, but with only moderate personal success, although he played in the team that won the SAB Bowl in 1981–82. In 1984–85 Odendaal became the only white first-class player to play in the non-white South African first-class competition during the

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

era, appearing for the Transvaal team in 1984–85 and the Western Province team in 1985–86. After the end of apartheid Odendaal served as

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Newlands Cricket Ground Newlands Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in Newlands, Cape Town. One of the oldest sporting stadiums in South Africa, the ground is owned by the Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA) and is the home of Western Province and MI Cape ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

and CEO of the

Cape Cobras The Cape Cobras are a former franchise cricket team representing the Western Province, Boland, and South Western Districts regions in what was the South African domestic franchise era. The team's home venues were based between Newlands ...

and

Western Province Western Province or West Province may refer to: *Western Province, Cameroon *Western Province, Rwanda *Western Province (Kenya) *Western Province (Papua New Guinea) *Western Province (Solomon Islands) *Western Province, Sri Lanka *Western Provinc ...

cricket teams for ten years. He chaired the UCBSA's Transformation Monitoring Committee from 1998 to 2002. In 2002 he received the President's Award for Sport (Silver Class) for his contribution to bringing about change in sport.

Career as a historian

Odendaal has taught history at the

University of South Africa The University of South Africa (UNISA) is the largest university system in South Africa by enrollment. It attracts a third of all higher education students in South Africa. Through various colleges and affiliates, UNISA has over 400,000 student ...

and at the

University of the Western Cape The University of the Western Cape (UWC; ) is a Public university, public research university in Bellville, South Africa, Bellville, near Cape Town, South Africa. The university was established in 1959 by the Politics of South Africa, South ...

, where he is an Honorary Professor in History and Heritage Studies. He was founding director of the Mayibuye Centre for History and Culture in 1991 and the

Robben Island Robben Island () is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, north of Cape Town, South Africa. It takes its name from the Dutch language, Dutch word for seals (''robben''), hence the Dutch/Afrika ...

Museum in 1997. His books include: * ''God's Forgotten Cricketers: Profiles of Leading South African Players'' (1976) (ed) * ''Cricket in Isolation: The Politics of Race and Cricket in South Africa'' (1977) * ''Vukani Bantu!: The Beginnings of Black Protest Politics in South Africa'' (1984) * ''Beyond the Barricades: Popular Resistance in South Africa in the 1980's'' (1989) (contributed main essay) * ''A Trumpet from the Housetops: The Selected Writings of Lionel Forman'' (1992) (ed, with Sadie Forman) * ''Liberation Chabalala: The World of Alex la Guma'' (1993) (ed, with Roger Field) * ''Beyond the Tryline: Rugby and South African Society'' (1995) (with Albert Grundlingh and Burridge Spies) * ''The Story of an African Game: Black Cricketers and the Unmasking of One of South Africa's Greatest Myths, 1850–2003'' (2003) * ''The Blue Book: A History of Western Province Cricket 1890–2011'' (2012) (with Krish Reddy and Andrew Samson) * ''The Founders: The Origins of the African National Congress and the Struggle for Democracy'' (2012) * ''Cricket and Conquest: The History of South African Cricket Retold: Volume 1, 1795–1914'' (2016) (with Krish Reddy, Christopher Merrett and Jonty Winch) * ''Divided Country: The History of South African Cricket Retold: Volume 2, 1914–1960'' (2018) (with Krish Reddy and Christopher Merrett) * ''Pitch Battles: Sport, Racism and Resistance'' (2021) (with

Peter Hain Peter Gerald Hain, Baron Hain, (born 16 February 1950), is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2005 to 2007, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2007 to 2008 and twice as Secretary of State ...

) * ''Swallows and Hawke: England's Cricket Tours, MCC and the Making of South Africa 1888–1968'' (2022) (with Richard Parry) * ''Dear Comrade President: Oliver Tambo and the Foundations of South Africa's Constitution'' (2022)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Odendaal, Andre 1954 births Living people People from Queenstown, South Africa South African cricketers Stellenbosch University alumni Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Cambridge University cricketers Boland cricketers 20th-century South African historians Historians of South Africa Cricket writers British Universities cricketers 21st-century South African historians