I always find it fascinating how countries react to the fall of Communism. Once Prada rather than Pravda is in the ascendant, they seem to go a little crazy. Croatia is a case in point – the city of Split has allowed seemingly every designer brand under the sun to set up boutiques within the walls of a Roman palace.
Anyone who’s seen the Golden Arches in Moscow might wonder at the irony, but the incongruity there seems, if anything, less pronounced. Funnily enough, cricket’s now a part of this capitalist revival.
On Mr & Mrs CC’s tour of the Dalmatian coast we stopped by the island of Vis. Where they play cricket. CC wanted to rent a scooter and visit the pitch, but Mrs CC said the beach was a better option, and to be fair she probably had a point:
Vis, a little like another of the islands, Mljet, remains largely untouched by mass tourism. For years under communism there was none, and it's fair to say the island hasn't grasped its possibilities in the way others - Hvar for example - have. This is largely a good thing. Anyway, the Croatians as a people aren't natural hosts. Break through the blunt veneer and they're as warm and fun as anyone else, but they have little time for the predominance that other races (us, for a start) place on superficial deportment and manners.
CC: Can we sit at this table?
Waiter: No. It's reserved. You can sit on this wall.
CC: I don't think that would be very comfortable.
Waiter: Ok.
Over and over again. It's just funny in the end.
But the story of cricket on the island is pretty fascinating. It goes back to 1810, when Sir William Hoste included this line in his diary: ‘…we have established a cricket pitch at this wretched place and when we do get anchored for a few hours, it passes away an hour very well.’ Hoste was a navyman who served under Nelson – part of his fleet at the Battle of the Nile. By 1805 the defeat of the Russian and Austrian armies left Britain and Ireland alone at war with Napoleon – Bonaparte’s embargo on trading with Britain lead to the Royal Navy blockading Mediterranean ports and seizing merchant vessels. Vis (then Lissa), was Hoste’s base for these endeavours.
And the Vis team today is, in honour of him, Kriket Klub Sir William Hoste.
Vis was later used as a hiding place by General Tito during his struggle against the Ustase – the Nationalist Party the ruled the country and was essentially an off-shoot of the Nazis. It was inevitable that Croatia would go down this road during the Second World War. The dominant influence on the Dalmatian coast has always been Italian (Roman, then Venetian in the 14th and 15th Centuries), and it was an Italian mob that summarily executed some islanders in 1942 for the theft of small arms. Later, the British used the island as a strategic base, and their war dead are memorialized on a marble plaque in the churchyard:
HERE DEAD LIE WE BECAUSE WE DID NOT CHOOSE
TO LIVE AND SHARE THE LAND FROM WHICH WE SPRUNG
LIFE TO BE SURE IS NOTHING MUCH TO LOSE
BUT YOUNG MEN THINK IT IS AND WE WERE YOUNG
Tito was successful in his struggle, and when in the 90s the country sought a break from Communist Yugoslavia after his death, it’s no wonder that those they were fighting – largely Serbs – saw echoes of the Ustase (who had victimized them terribly) in the resistance. It wasn’t helped by a hard-line nationalist leader who was happy to use such rhetoric: the national flag, given such a history, carried ominous intimations. And many couldn’t help but comment on the fact that the first country to recognize Croatian independence in the EU was….well, Germany.
Of course, such fears were misplaced. Croatia simply wished to be a modern nation. And some of those involved in Kriket Klub Sir William Hoste had actually come back to fight ‘for our country’. Once the war ended, the club was just another way of bringing money into the island. And the idea was actually sown in their minds – I had no idea this was the case – by the leader of the St Radegund cricket team in Cambridge, who I play once a year. The Rad were actually the second team to play Sir William Hoste’s XI, a game they won (though the scorebook was incorrectly added up, and they were actually short of William Hoste’s total when the players shook hands).
The local press reported the match:
'At the field of the Samogor complex on Vis, in front of about a hundred spectators, the second international cricket match…took place. The English won by a single point, 99 to 98' (The Rad actually won by several wickets).
There’s certainly some talent among the Vis lot though – not 12 months after setting up the team, two of their players represented Croatia in an international tournament.
History has a funny way of feeding into itself. A few months ago I happened to walk past a square where a game had been going on hours earlier, and remarked how odd it was that while the place remained the same, all the emotion and drama had melted away. For Croatia, see that writ large. A few miles away and barely twenty years ago, Dubrovnik was being bombed to fuck by Yugoslavian forces. There was no water. Former hoteliers armed with AK47s desperately held out in the fort above the town against troops with all manner of bombs and mortars.
The ITN footage on view at a local museum is stunning. It's not quite the era of iPods and WiFi in cocktail bars, when this sort of thing just doesn't happen in civilised countries, damn it, but it isn't far off. September 11th rather pushed the Balkans (and Grozny) into history in terms of modern conflict. Now Dubrovnik's a bustling tourist attraction:
Or if you prefer:
Vis didn't see such action - on nearby Mljet our hotelier told us his brother lead a garrison of 20 troops, who could have been called into action against the 70 Yugoslav troops. A terrifying little game of cat and mouse could have ensued - fortunately for them, it never happened. But the cricket on the island, an improbable echo of the games that took place 200 years earlier, was born of the fall-out from that war. Andy Bull has been writing recently on how sport and politics can't be separated. He's not wrong.
Anyone who’s seen the Golden Arches in Moscow might wonder at the irony, but the incongruity there seems, if anything, less pronounced. Funnily enough, cricket’s now a part of this capitalist revival.
On Mr & Mrs CC’s tour of the Dalmatian coast we stopped by the island of Vis. Where they play cricket. CC wanted to rent a scooter and visit the pitch, but Mrs CC said the beach was a better option, and to be fair she probably had a point:
Not to mention the Blue Cave - worth a visit:
CC: Can we sit at this table?
Waiter: No. It's reserved. You can sit on this wall.
CC: I don't think that would be very comfortable.
Waiter: Ok.
Over and over again. It's just funny in the end.
But the story of cricket on the island is pretty fascinating. It goes back to 1810, when Sir William Hoste included this line in his diary: ‘…we have established a cricket pitch at this wretched place and when we do get anchored for a few hours, it passes away an hour very well.’ Hoste was a navyman who served under Nelson – part of his fleet at the Battle of the Nile. By 1805 the defeat of the Russian and Austrian armies left Britain and Ireland alone at war with Napoleon – Bonaparte’s embargo on trading with Britain lead to the Royal Navy blockading Mediterranean ports and seizing merchant vessels. Vis (then Lissa), was Hoste’s base for these endeavours.
And the Vis team today is, in honour of him, Kriket Klub Sir William Hoste.
Vis was later used as a hiding place by General Tito during his struggle against the Ustase – the Nationalist Party the ruled the country and was essentially an off-shoot of the Nazis. It was inevitable that Croatia would go down this road during the Second World War. The dominant influence on the Dalmatian coast has always been Italian (Roman, then Venetian in the 14th and 15th Centuries), and it was an Italian mob that summarily executed some islanders in 1942 for the theft of small arms. Later, the British used the island as a strategic base, and their war dead are memorialized on a marble plaque in the churchyard:
HERE DEAD LIE WE BECAUSE WE DID NOT CHOOSE
TO LIVE AND SHARE THE LAND FROM WHICH WE SPRUNG
LIFE TO BE SURE IS NOTHING MUCH TO LOSE
BUT YOUNG MEN THINK IT IS AND WE WERE YOUNG
Tito was successful in his struggle, and when in the 90s the country sought a break from Communist Yugoslavia after his death, it’s no wonder that those they were fighting – largely Serbs – saw echoes of the Ustase (who had victimized them terribly) in the resistance. It wasn’t helped by a hard-line nationalist leader who was happy to use such rhetoric: the national flag, given such a history, carried ominous intimations. And many couldn’t help but comment on the fact that the first country to recognize Croatian independence in the EU was….well, Germany.
Of course, such fears were misplaced. Croatia simply wished to be a modern nation. And some of those involved in Kriket Klub Sir William Hoste had actually come back to fight ‘for our country’. Once the war ended, the club was just another way of bringing money into the island. And the idea was actually sown in their minds – I had no idea this was the case – by the leader of the St Radegund cricket team in Cambridge, who I play once a year. The Rad were actually the second team to play Sir William Hoste’s XI, a game they won (though the scorebook was incorrectly added up, and they were actually short of William Hoste’s total when the players shook hands).
The local press reported the match:
'At the field of the Samogor complex on Vis, in front of about a hundred spectators, the second international cricket match…took place. The English won by a single point, 99 to 98' (The Rad actually won by several wickets).
There’s certainly some talent among the Vis lot though – not 12 months after setting up the team, two of their players represented Croatia in an international tournament.
History has a funny way of feeding into itself. A few months ago I happened to walk past a square where a game had been going on hours earlier, and remarked how odd it was that while the place remained the same, all the emotion and drama had melted away. For Croatia, see that writ large. A few miles away and barely twenty years ago, Dubrovnik was being bombed to fuck by Yugoslavian forces. There was no water. Former hoteliers armed with AK47s desperately held out in the fort above the town against troops with all manner of bombs and mortars.
The ITN footage on view at a local museum is stunning. It's not quite the era of iPods and WiFi in cocktail bars, when this sort of thing just doesn't happen in civilised countries, damn it, but it isn't far off. September 11th rather pushed the Balkans (and Grozny) into history in terms of modern conflict. Now Dubrovnik's a bustling tourist attraction:
Or if you prefer:
As if death and destruction never paid a visit at all. But in these heaving streets full of people meandering around, shopping and eating ice creams were sown some of the seeds of Britain's involvement in the Libya conflict. Monsters like Arkan and Mladic were born of unfettered nationalism and a confused, self-interested international response. As P.J. O'Rourke put it: 'Where were we when Clinton was dithering over the massacres in Kosovo and decided, at last, to send Kosovan Serbs a message: Mess with the United States and we'll wait six months then bomb the country next to you'. It's hard to say how much David Cameron's experience during those years influenced his policy to take the lead on such world events - though commentators claim it's considerable. Even Britain's endeavours in Iraq and Afghanistan didn't put him off.
Vis didn't see such action - on nearby Mljet our hotelier told us his brother lead a garrison of 20 troops, who could have been called into action against the 70 Yugoslav troops. A terrifying little game of cat and mouse could have ensued - fortunately for them, it never happened. But the cricket on the island, an improbable echo of the games that took place 200 years earlier, was born of the fall-out from that war. Andy Bull has been writing recently on how sport and politics can't be separated. He's not wrong.
Thanks a lot for share your great post.it is informative post for sports.This site published important topic of cricket.i hope this site give more important information about cricket.i wish all is well.
ReplyDelete