The D'Oliveira Affair 1968/9: Thirty years after
Date
1999-05-10
Authors
Murray, Bruce
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Abstract
The 'D'Oliviera Affair' of 1968/9 was a decisive event in precipitating
South Africa's isolation from international test match cricket. In the
view of many at the time—and since—Basil D'Oliviera, the South African born
Coloured cricketer who played for England, warranted inclusion in
the MCC team to tour South Africa in 1968/9 when it was first selected
on 27 August 1968. The fact that he was not included caused an uproar
in Britain; the allegation made was that the selectors had not chosen the
team purely on merit, but had instead capitulated to South Africa's
apartheid government, which would have refused to admit an MCC team
with D'Oliviera in it. When on 16 September Tom Cartwright, a
medium-paced bowler, dropped out of the team through injury,
D'Oliviera, regarded essentially a batsman who also bowled, was
immediately selected in his place. As represented by the Vorster
Government, this amounted to a capitulation by the MCC to political
pressure from the anti-apartheid movement, and it refused to accept a
team which it alleged was no longer that of the MCC. 'Whereas we are
and always have been prepared to play host to the MCC', Vorster
announced at the National Party congress in Bloemfontein on 17
September, 'we are not prepared to receive a team thrust on us by
people whose interests are not the game but to gain political objectives
which they do not even attempt to hide.' The tour was consequently
cancelled, and a huge impetus given to the movement to exclude South
Africa from test match cricket. As the Rand Daily Mail predicted, '[Mr
Vorster's] decision to bar not only Basil D'Oliviera but the MCC team as
a whole means, without a shadow of a doubt, South Africa's exclusion
from the world of Test cricket'. Within three years that exclusion was
complete. Throughout the 1960s the movement to ban South Africa from
international sport had been building up momentum, spurred by the
efforts of the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SANROC).
Formed in October 1962, and moving into exile in 1966 when Dennis
Brutus left South Africa for London on a one-way ticket, SANROC's
primary focus was on the Olympic arena, where it sought to secure either non-racialism in South African sport, or failing that, the expulsion of South Africa from the Olympics and international sport more generally. In 1964, and again in 1968, South Africa was excluded from the Olympic Games. In cricket, however, South Africa's position still seemed reasonably secure.
Description
African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 10 May 1999
Keywords
D'Oliveira, Basil,1934-, Discrimination in sports. South Africa. History. 20th century, Cricket. South Africa, Sports and state. South Africa