The Howa Bowl was a

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 one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

competition in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

that ran from the 1972–73 to 1990–91 cricket seasons. Originally known as the Dadabhay Trophy, it was contested between Eastern Province,

Natal NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

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 Provin ...

. The Howa Bowl was run during South Africa's exclusion from international cricket due to

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

, and was limited to non-white players, who were not permitted to compete in the

Currie Cup The Currie Cup is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition, played each winter and spring (June to October), featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier ...

. It was organised by the

South African Cricket Board The South African Cricket Board of Control (SACBOC) was a sports governing body that existed in South Africa under apartheid. It governed cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at ...

, with the matches being played over three days. The pitches used in the competition were poor quality, which is highlighted by the fact that a team passed 400 in an innings just six times, while falling for under 100 on 87 occasions. In 1991, the fall of apartheid saw South Africa's sporting isolation ended and the formation of the United Cricket Board (UCB). Consequently, the racial divisions in the nation's domestic cricket were abolished after 102 years: with this, the ''raison d'etre'' for the Howa Bowl ceased to exist, and the competition was ended.

First-class status

Although the 216 Howa Bowl matches had not been given first-class status at the time the competition ended, the UCB subsequently requested that these be added retrospectively. In 2006, ''Wisden'' added these matches to the official records, along with seven other representative matches between non-white teams. This decision meant that West Indian Test cricketer

Rohan Kanhai Rohan Babulal Kanhai (born 26 December 1935) is a Guyanese former cricketer of Tamil Indo-Guyanese origin , who represented the West Indies in 79 Test matches. He is widely considered to be one of the best batsmen of the 1960s. Kanhai featur ...

, who had played in the competition's 1974/75 season with success, moved past

Plum Warner Sir Pelham Francis Warner, (2 October 1873 – 30 January 1963), affectionately and better known as Plum Warner or "the Grand Old Man" of English cricket, was a Test cricketer and cricket administrator. He was knighted for services to sport i ...

on the list of all-time leading first-class run scorers, and also joined his former teammate

Gary Sobers Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, (born 28 July 1936), also known as Sir Gary or Sir Garry Sobers, is a former cricketer who played for the West Indies between 1954 and 1974. A highly skilled bowler, an aggressive batsman and an excellent fielder, ...

with 86 career centuries. Further to this, two more instances of the rare dismissal handled the ball were added to the records, along with the first-ever case of a batter being given out timed out: Andrew Jordaan, playing for Eastern Province v Transvaal at Port Elizabeth in 1987–88 – he had been not out overnight, but arrived late the next morning due to the roads being poor after torrential rain.

Champions by season

The Howa Bowl was dominated by Western Province, who won fourteen of the 19 titles outright (one was shared with Natal, which was Natal's only title), while Eastern Province won three and Transvaal won one.

Statistical leaders

References

{{Cricket in South Africa , state=collapsed South African domestic cricket competitions Cricket and apartheid