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GOOD SPORTS

HEIL ZAT!

In Nazi Germany sport had one purpose, to strengthen the German people. But not all field games were acceptable to the Führer. Hitler thought the quintessentially British sport of cricket wasn’t butch enough for his Aryan master race.

There is, apparently, a churlish but somehow characteristically Adolf reason for this.

It’s reported that in 1923, having watched a team of British former prisoners of war play cricket and learnt from them the rules, Hitler raised a team to play against them. To his chagrin, Hitler lost. But what really incensed the would-be Führer was that he wasn’t allowed to change the rules of the game. Whatever; Hitler’s interest in cricket was short-lived. He may or may not have stormed off the pitch in a huff but he absolutely went on record to declare the sport ‘unmanly’.

So, if he despised the game so much, why did he invite the Gentlemen of Worcestershire Cricket Club to Berlin for three games? And why might they have taken more than just wickets?

Some say cricket’s complex rule book reflects the many facets of genteel British manners – which a dictator might not want to adopt.

In 1937 Hitler – now the leader of Germany – dispatched his Minister of Sport, Hans von Tschammer und Osten, to London. During his stay the minister was invited to a lunch at Lord’s, the home of cricket.

Von Tschammer und Osten reported this to Hitler, who came up with a cunning plan: challenge the British at their national game, and show the world that the Germans could beat them. The minister sent out an open invitation – worded, one suspects, more diplomatically than ‘Would you like to be crushed and humiliated by the Master Race, weather permitting?’ – and one club, the Gentleman of Worcestershire, accepted the offer to play in Berlin.

So it was that in August 1937 the Gentlemen found themselves in Berlin for the start of an unofficial Test-match series. As the team took to the field, they were asked to give a Nazi salute.

Good manners dictated that they did just that. But as the matches played out, the Worcestershire team were shocked by the lack of etiquette displayed by their Aryan opponents, who screamed ‘Aus!’ every other ball, probably in an effort to put Worcestershire off their stride. The English team also observed that the captain of the German side, Gerhard Thamer, would punch butter-fingered fielders who dropped catches off his bowling. We may all, at some point, have desired to do the same. But only a true barbarian actually would.

In spite of an intimidating backdrop of swastikas, anti-Semitic posters, the distant serenade of semi-automatic gunfire at night and being under the constant scrutiny of the Gestapo, the Gents went on to beat the Nazi cricket team in all three matches.

But in the midst of this extraordinary series, one team member may have had his eyes on more than just the ball.

Author Dan Waddell has researched the Nazi cricket series, and he discovered documents that suggest there was a British spy in their team. ‘As I delved deeper into the story and started to gather information, there was one name that stood out. And that was this chap Robin Whetherly.’ Dan says there wasn’t an actual ‘smoking gun’ document identifying Whetherly as a spy,

… but there’s an accumulation of evidence that suggests it was likely. For one, he spoke German and he joined Special Ops during the Second World War and served with them, which again adds to this air of secrecy. He seemed to have no link to the Gentlemen of Worcestershire team, he never played cricket for them before. Finally, he flew out to Germany while the rest of them went on the train and he seemed quite separate to the rest. A few of the members didn’t even know who he was.