Sulaiman "Dik" Abed (22 October 1944 – 19 January 2018) was a South African-born cricketer, who played professionally in England and later captained

the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Life and career

Abed was born to a

Cape Malay Cape Malays (, in Arabic Afrikaans, Arabic script) also known as Cape Muslims or Malays, are a Muslim community or ethnic group in South Africa. They are the descendants of enslaved and free Muslims from different parts of the world, specifi ...

family in

District Six District Six (Afrikaans: ''Distrik Ses'') is a residential neighborhood in Cape Town, South Africa, located next to the city's Cape Town CBD, CBD. In 1959, people of color were banned from the area and most of them were resettled in Gugulet ...

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 ...

, South Africa. He was one of five brothers. He grew up playing club cricket in the

Western Province Cricket Association The Western Province Cricket Association is the governing body for cricket in the Cape Town region. Its representative team, Western Province, competes in South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the ...

, which at the time was unsegregated, but was ineligible to play at provincial level because of his race during

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 ...

. He represented the Western Province non-white team before moving to England in 1967 to see if he could establish himself as a professional in league cricket. Abed played as Enfield's professional in the Lancashire League for 10 seasons, from 1967 to 1976, scoring 5,271 runs at an average of 27.17 and taking 855 wickets at 10.27 with his fast-medium bowling. In 1968, when Enfield won the championship for the first time in 25 years, he took 120 wickets at an average of 9.30 and made 458 runs at 20.90. When Enfield won again in 1971, Abed took 101 wickets at 7.99 and made 662 runs at 28.78. He resisted offers from other league clubs and a first-class county and stayed with Enfield. The counties may also have been reluctant to engage him in the wake of the

D'Oliveira affair The D'Oliveira affair was a prolonged political and sporting controversy relating to the scheduled 1968–69 tour of South Africa by the England cricket team, who were officially representing the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). The point of cont ...

. The

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 ...

coach

Alan Oakman Alan Stanley Myles Oakman (20 April 1930 – 6 September 2018) was an English first-class cricketer. He had a long career for Sussex, playing 538 first-class matches over a 21-year period, and played two Test matches for England. He also umpire ...

told Abed the authorities had instructed him not to sign Abed for the county. In an attempt to make South African cricket more acceptable to world opinion and to ensure the tour to Australia in 1971–72 went ahead, the South African cricket authorities offered Abed and another non-white player, Owen Williams, a place on the touring team. However, not only did the South African

National Party National Party or Nationalist Party may refer to: Active parties * National Party of Australia, commonly known as ''The Nationals'' * Bangladesh: ** Bangladesh Nationalist Party ** Jatiya Party (Ershad) a.k.a. ''National Party (Ershad)'' * Californ ...

government refuse to allow the initiative to proceed, but Abed and Williams also refused to be a part of what they considered a token gesture. After marrying a Dutch woman, Abed moved to the Netherlands in 1977 and became a Dutch citizen in 1981. He played club cricket for

HBS Craeyenhout HBS Craeyenhout is an omnisports club based in The Hague that fields teams in association football, cricket and hockey. The club is best known for its football team, which is one of the original clubs of Dutch football, and three times national c ...

, leading the club to three national titles, and for

VRA Amsterdam VRA Amsterdam (Volharding RAP Amstels) is a cricket club in Amstelveen, Netherlands. It was founded on September 5, 1914 from the merger of Volharding (1889), RAP (1887) and Amstels C.C. (1885). In the early years the club played visiting English ...

. He captained the Netherlands team in the

1982 ICC Trophy The 1982 ICC Trophy was a limited-overs cricket tournament held in England between 16 June and 10 July 1982. It was the second ICC Trophy tournament to be staged, with matches between the 16 participating teams played over 60 overs a side and wi ...

. He eventually had to retire from cricket due to an eye injury, but remained active in the game. He retired to an aged-care home across from the HBS grounds.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Abed, Dik 1944 births 2018 deaths Cricketers from Cape Town South African cricketers Dutch cricket captains Dutch cricketers Dutch people of South African descent South African emigrants to the Netherlands South African people of Malay descent