Basil D’Oliveira, the England cricket great and worldwide symbol of the fight against sporting apartheid, has died at the age of 80. This post by Patrick Sawer, is supplied by our friends at the Daily Telegraph.
D'Oliveira's selection for England in 1968 led to South Africa’s sporting isolation after the racist regime refused to accept his presence in the squad due to tour the country that year.
D’Oliveira, known affectionately as Dolly, had been chosen to play for England after leaving his native South Africa in 1960. But South African Prime Minister BJ Voster told the English cricket authorities he would not be allowed to play.
The subsequent cancellation of the tour was a watershed in the sporting boycott of South Africa and led to an intensification of the campaign to isolate the apartheid regime. No official team from any country subsequently toured South Africa until apartheid was abolished, following Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1990.
Tributes to D’Oliveira began pouring in on news of his death.
Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald Majola said: “He was a man of true dignity and a wonderful role model as somebody who overcame the most extreme prejudices and circumstances to take his rightful place on the world stage.
“The circumstances surrounding his being prevented from touring the country of his birth with England in 1968 led directly to the intensification of opposition to apartheid around the world and contributed materially to the sports boycott that turned out to be an Achilles’ heel of the apartheid government.
“Throughout this shameful period in South Africa’s sporting history, Basil displayed a human dignity that earned him worldwide respect and admiration."
In fact, the D’Oliveira affair was not as clear cut as subsequent history as made it appear.
The MCC initially buckled under pressure from South African cricket officials and decided not to pick D’Oliveira for inclusion in the 1968 tour. The pretext used was that his style of bowling would not be suited to his native country.
However, the public outcry over the decision not to include him in the squad led to the MCC relenting and calling him up to replace Warwickshire’s Tom Cartwright when he was ruled out due to injury.
D’Oliveira was born in Cape Town in 1931 and as a child quickly began to display a phenomenal talent for cricket. However, under South Africa’s apartheid laws he was classed as "coloured" and barred from playing first class cricket.
He went on to captain South Africa’s national non-white cricket team and played football for the non-white national side, but with the help of the commentator John Arlott and the journalist John Kay Dolly emigrated to England where he joined the Central Lancashire League team of Middleton.
The move proved an eye opener for D’Oliveira, who was surprised to see white people doing menial, labouring work and waiting on him in restaurants.
He joined Worcestershire in 1964 and became a British citizen. Two years later he was selected for England as an all-rounder, and in 1967 was one of Wisden’s cricketers of the year.
Mr Majola said: “The fact that he could have a Test career batting average of 40 in 44 Tests and an economy rate of less than two with the ball on his way to 47 wickets was remarkable considering he was past his prime when he made his debut for England in his mid-30s.
“One can only imagine what he might have achieved had he made his debut as he should have done at the age of 20 on South Africa’s tour of England in 1951.
“I would like to pay tribute also to all those people in England, notably John Arlott, one of the greatest cricket radio commentators of all time, for the roles they played in making it possible for Basil to achieve his dream of playing international cricket for his adopted country."
D’Oliveira played in 44 test matches, scoring 2,484 runs, with five Test centuries and a batting average of 40.06. He took 47 Test wickets.
As well as being an ambassador for a sport free of discrimination he was also a tough competitor.
The night following England’s 2-0 series win over Australia in 1970-71 he took to jabbing his forefinger of every Australian he met, saying: “We stuffed you.”
D’Oliveira was suffering from Parkinson's disease.
No comments:
Post a Comment