D'Oliveira affair

The D'Oliveira affair was an international incident in 1968 surrounding an England cricket tour to South Africa. Basil D'Oliveira, who had previously emigrated to England from South Africa, was included in the England touring squad, but the ruling apartheid government in South Africa objected to his inclusion because he wasn't white. The tour was subsequently cancelled.

The incident marked the start of South Africa's sporting isolation during the apartheid era.

Summary

Due to South African apartheid laws, which introduced legal racial segregation to the country in 1948, no non-white (defined under the legislation as either "black", "coloured" or "Indian") player was eligible to play Test cricket for South Africa. In fact, overseas teams wishing to tour South Africa were also limited by these rules.^[1] These laws led to Basil D'Oliveira, a 'Cape Coloured' South African, emigrating to England, where he began to play Test cricket. He was subsequently named as a late replacement as part of the England team to tour South Africa in 1968–69, but South African Prime Minister John Vorster refused to allow D'Oliveira into the country as part of the touring side, declaring: "We are not prepared to receive a team thrust upon us by people whose interests are not in the game but to gain certain political objectives which they do not even attempt to hide. The MCC team is not the team of the MCC but of the anti-apartheid movement."^[2] A week later, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) called off the tour.^[2] South Africa's cricket team toured Australia the following winter, but tours of England in 1970 and of Australia in 1971–72 were both cancelled after anti-apartheid protests.^[3]

The D'Oliveira affair was widely seen as the defining action which led to South Africa's expulsion from international cricket; the Rand Daily Mail stating "[Mr Vorster's] decision to bar not only Basil D'Oliveira but the MCC team as a whole means, without a shadow of a doubt, South Africa's exclusion from the world of Test cricket."^[4]

References

1. ^ Minty, Abdul (1971-04). International Boycott of Apartheid Sport. United Nations Unit on Apartheid. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Williamson, Martin (2008-09-13). "The D'Oliveira Affair". ESPNcricinfo. http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/356092.html. Retrieved 2010-04-05. 
3. ^ Williamson, Martin (2006-08-26). "Cricket in crisis". ESPNcricinfo. http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/258016.html. Retrieved 2010-04-05. 
4. ^ Murray, Bruce K (2002-05-01). "The Sports Boycott and Cricket: The Cancellation of the 1970 South African Tour of England". South African Historical Journal 46 (1): 219–249. http://wiserweb.wits.ac.za/PDF%20Files/wirs%20-%20murray.PDF. Retrieved 2011-11-19. 

External links

• BBC: Former England all-rounder Basil D'Oliveira dies
• The Guardian: Basil D'Oliveira, the unwitting catalyst of the South Africa boycott