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00:00:04That's a way for four runs, not a bad chance I think for everybody to meet England's latest
00:00:09cap, Basil D'Olivera, Worcestershire and England. Hello, we've got a crowd around here.
00:00:18So very soon you get the idea of what the people in these parts think of Basil D'Olivera and
00:00:23his
00:00:23cricket for Worcestershire and England. This is the cricketing story of a lifetime.
00:00:30It tells of how one man and one innings led ultimately to the downfall of a brutal political regime.
00:00:41The political fallout from that innings resonates to this day.
00:00:46Tell us about your family in Cape Town in the background.
00:00:50I don't think there's much to tell, you know, how a particular family is really crossbred
00:00:55between Portuguese and South African.
00:00:58And that's a fine shot.
00:01:01That was a good stroke and it's four runs.
00:01:03In came D'Olivera and he's played this magnificent innings.
00:01:06That innings, made in 1968, made an overwhelming case for D'Olivera's inclusion in the forthcoming
00:01:12England tour of South Africa.
00:01:17The problem for the selectors was that he was racially classified as coloured in South Africa
00:01:22and was therefore forbidden from playing with whites.
00:01:28Indeed, D'Olivera had been forced to leave the country of his birth and change his nationality
00:01:33in order to play test cricket at all.
00:01:38Our policy is one which is called by an Afrikaans' word apartheid.
00:01:44And I'm afraid that has been misunderstood so often.
00:01:48It could just as easily and perhaps much better be described as a policy of good neighbourliness.
00:01:59It was that racist policy which D'Olivera's cricketing genius would fundamentally challenge.
00:02:10Good to see you.
00:02:11Good to see you, bro.
00:02:12Good to see you, bro.
00:02:12Good to see you, bro.
00:02:13Yeah.
00:02:14Whoops.
00:02:17Are we in there?
00:02:20Basil D'Olivera, now aged 72, has returned to Cape Town for the Cricket World Cup in South Africa.
00:02:26Hi, thank you.
00:02:27What's the score?
00:02:28I can't see that far.
00:02:29For the black man, he means a hero to us.
00:02:33God, that's a great shot.
00:02:34Today, we can say we can be proud because of Basil D'Olivera.
00:02:38We are sitting here and watching the World Cup.
00:02:43Because his 1.58 against Australia changed the course of history.
00:02:49Well, the end of a really superb inning from Basil D'Olivera.
00:02:52And as you walk back to the pavilion at the Oval.
00:02:55Yes.
00:02:56That's what you're thinking.
00:02:57Yes.
00:02:58I'm in again.
00:02:59I'm here.
00:03:00I've got to be picked.
00:03:02That innings placed the English cricket selectors in the eye of a political storm.
00:03:07And when you come to help to select the side to go to South Africa, are you going to allow
00:03:11yourself to be influenced by anything except purely cricketing considerations?
00:03:15No, we've got to sit down in about 45 minutes' time, in fact, and pick the best team in England,
00:03:21which will beat South Africa.
00:03:23And then the plot began to unfold.
00:03:27I was set up, you know, that they had the golden opportunity.
00:03:30Only now is Basil D'Olivera able to tell the full story of the scandal, which led ultimately to the
00:03:37fall of apartheid.
00:03:38A plot that implicates the politicians and sports administrators alike in one of the great betrayals of modern sport.
00:03:50The story begins in the back streets of Cape Town.
00:03:54The Boer Cup.
00:03:55And how did your cricket start?
00:03:56I suppose it started like most people.
00:03:58You know, you just take a bat and a ball and a few sticks for wickets or a tin can
00:04:03and away you go and you play.
00:04:08Basil D'Olivera was born in 1931, the son of a tailor, and he grew up in the Boer Cup
00:04:14on the slopes of Signal Hill below Table Mountain.
00:04:19It's that one. I've come back. Yeah.
00:04:27Everything evolved around the word called sport. It was soccer and it was cricket. That was the two main sports
00:04:33that we thrived on.
00:04:37At four o'clock, we all meet in the street. That's where the game starts taking place.
00:04:42And they had a war, which is still there today. That was our practice war for throwing balls and taking
00:04:47catches.
00:04:50So this is the poster you would play against?
00:04:52Yeah.
00:04:53When you were a small boy.
00:04:55That's much to everybody.
00:04:56Yeah.
00:04:57At that stage he was already making runs.
00:05:01Play street cricket.
00:05:03Windows on both sides.
00:05:05So what must you do?
00:05:06You must always play straight.
00:05:08Six over this wire.
00:05:09That'll be a six.
00:05:10That'll be a four.
00:05:12That one up there will be sixes.
00:05:15It's a big hit.
00:05:15People of all different races, different religions all stayed in the same round.
00:05:25In 1948, the National Party is elected in one of the most significant political developments in South African history because
00:05:34it's the National Party following that election, which then establishes what came to be known as apartheid.
00:05:39In 1948, 49 and 50, they passed the major legislation which separates the entire population according to race and which
00:05:47basically takes away from all black and non-white people what few rights they previously enjoyed.
00:05:54Dr. H. F. Favuert, Minister of Native Affairs, later Prime Minister, left nothing to chance.
00:06:01For the whites of South Africa, apartheid brought an affluent way of life and great prosperity.
00:06:08D'Olivera himself was 17 when apartheid was introduced.
00:06:11Though light-skinned, his family was classified coloured and so the world into which he'd been born was utterly changed.
00:06:19The white area is over there.
00:06:21Over there.
00:06:22And the coloured area, the melee quarter is down there.
00:06:24That's right, yeah.
00:06:26And this racial classification even had an impact on the young D'Olivera's cricket.
00:06:31They said he shouldn't be on the street at that time of night and they're playing cricket under the lamppost.
00:06:36That's not allowed by law.
00:06:38He went just whacked down, opened the Black Mariah, boom, kicked you in there.
00:06:43You were in there.
00:06:43Bang and locked it up.
00:06:45For non-whites, everyday life was rigidly controlled by the new nationalist government.
00:06:52Because the colour of your skin is black, if you are over 16, you have to have a special identity
00:06:58card called a passport.
00:07:01And if you didn't have it with you, you'd be arrested.
00:07:05We were all petrified of them. A whole bloody lot. All of us.
00:07:09They were very aggressive people.
00:07:12In order to play cricket, I had to move from here.
00:07:17So let's walk around there and I'll show you where.
00:07:20Yeah.
00:07:20Over there behind them.
00:07:21We're that top of the side.
00:07:25I said, it's not right.
00:07:26That's just not right.
00:07:28These people aren't better than us.
00:07:30And I said, well, I'll bugger them.
00:07:32We'll get in there one day.
00:07:33Don't you worry about it.
00:07:34And we did.
00:07:35In a big way.
00:07:38The powerful weapon D'Olivero would use to bring about change was the cricket bat.
00:07:44In the 1950s, as a young man ambitious to become a top sportsman, he would run daily to the summit
00:07:50of Signal Hill, overlooking Cape Town.
00:07:54So this was freedom for you, wasn't it?
00:07:56Yeah, absolutely. Complete freedom. Yeah, I owe this was mine.
00:08:00This is where you dreamt your dreams.
00:08:01Yeah.
00:08:02I will get there.
00:08:04I will get there.
00:08:05I will get there.
00:08:07Apartheid meant that organized sport was rigidly segregated, and not just between blacks and whites.
00:08:16In our sport, the Indians played separately, the Malays played separately, the Khalids played separately, and the Bantus played separately.
00:08:25We had our own social apartheid.
00:08:27The Muslims wanted to have to do nothing to do with the Khalids.
00:08:31The Khalids wanted to have nothing to do with the blacks.
00:08:33Although we would say hello to one another, they had their sport, and we had our sport.
00:08:39I loved it. I adored cricket.
00:08:42And I would drive myself on to make certain we'll have a game of cricket.
00:08:45Nothing is going to stop me from having a game of cricket.
00:08:48We played at Greenpoint. That was our own ground, but with no facilities at all.
00:08:54Nobody offered us anything here.
00:08:56It was just a bare piece of ground with gravel, no grass at all. It was all stone.
00:09:00Used to come here on a Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon.
00:09:04Anything between 12 and about 15 clubs played cricket at Greenpoint.
00:09:11But this is the ground. The ground. This is the famous one.
00:09:16This is where Basil Whitton and I played and broke, at times, possibly every record that's been broken in the
00:09:23book.
00:09:27St Augustine's was a club for Christian Cullards, and Olivera's father was the captain of the team.
00:09:33He taught me the fairness and honesty of the game.
00:09:38And I should play it, and hard you must try, you must never give up, you know.
00:09:42You're very gifted. Please don't spoil it.
00:09:46He learnt his cricket on rough, dirt tracks.
00:09:51My father and I would cut out a pitch. We'd roll that, we'd water it.
00:09:55And you walk and you carry it.
00:09:59And you get, say, to where we are now. And you drop it.
00:10:03Then you've got to roll it out.
00:10:05We get all the boulders, stones. Then prove to me how good you are.
00:10:12Dangerous it might be. But you might get a game out of it.
00:10:24That's what we learnt on.
00:10:30You can see the obstacles that confronted this man and he still made it to the top.
00:10:38In 1956, the notorious treason trial began. Opponents of the apartheid regime were rounded up and prosecuted.
00:10:48It was four years before Nelson Mandela and 150 other dissidents were found not guilty.
00:10:59Whilst we were growing up in a cricketing fraternity, Basil was creating a name for himself.
00:11:04But only the coloured newspapers would carry. Basil scores another ton.
00:11:08Basil takes another seven wickets. Basil scores another five goals and that and so forth.
00:11:13Two, three uncles of mine have played against him. And they said that was a genius about him.
00:11:20There's never been a non-white cricketer like him.
00:11:24I saw him only a few times. One is 1953 in the finals. Magnificent, hard-eating.
00:11:30They had to bandage their hands. He hit the ball so hard. He was commanding with effortless superiority.
00:11:40He was the Bradman of non-white cricket in South Africa. He once scored a double century in only an
00:11:46hour.
00:11:4728 sixes and five fours or something. I mean, it's ridiculous.
00:11:52He was a run-making machine.
00:11:56In the eight ball over, he hit the chap for seven sixes and one four.
00:12:01Tolivera's exploits on the cricket field made him an inspiration to his community.
00:12:08And we can look at about three, four thousand people at the match.
00:12:12Cricket was a social force, a social glue, which gathered people together on a weekend.
00:12:18I mean, you know, people would go all out. They would pack their picnic baskets.
00:12:22I mean, the women would come on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon with all the food and everything.
00:12:27It would be laid out. It wasn't just the game that counted.
00:12:30It was also the social occasion that was very important.
00:12:34And, of course, cricket is a game that lasts all day.
00:12:37It's not like a game of football or rugby where after 90 minutes it's over, everybody goes home.
00:12:41So you have a long time in which to socialise.
00:12:45Which is bowling here? Coming in now.
00:12:46Yeah, it's Tony Mullins.
00:12:49You're local? Local, yeah.
00:12:51What's your job in the team then?
00:12:53I'm a batsman, number four.
00:12:54Batsman, number four.
00:12:57How many do you got? What's your highest score?
00:12:58101, not 101.
00:13:00101? Oh, you're 100, man.
00:13:02That's good news, isn't it?
00:13:04Easy, isn't it?
00:13:08What's your highest score?
00:13:10250.
00:13:11Sure, against you.
00:13:12Yorkshire?
00:13:13And for the international?
00:13:15160.
00:13:16160?
00:13:16Against what country?
00:13:18Australia?
00:13:18Sure.
00:13:21More than 50 years on, Dolivera remains a legend at St. Augustine's.
00:13:26Good to see you. Take care of yourself, alright?
00:13:28Thanks a lot.
00:13:32Mr. Dolivera, we'd like a photograph with you and us ladies. Can we play?
00:13:38Look, we all knew what the laws of the land were.
00:13:42On Sundays, the best of black players would play against the best of white players.
00:13:46Although it was illegal at that time, but they nevertheless did that.
00:13:48All the whites we played against here, we'd hide behind grounds like this to keep it away from the police.
00:13:54And we pray that the police room won't come around. Stop the game.
00:13:58These matches were stopped, you know. They couldn't play against one another.
00:14:03And I must say that our boys did well against the white clubs, eh?
00:14:09Were you ever allowed to play on the white grounds?
00:14:12Yes, only when they invited us.
00:14:15And you had to be thankful for that. Small mercies, but be thankful for it.
00:14:19This great cricketer left school at 16 to work in the printing trade.
00:14:24Because when I knew Basil was an 18-year-old, he was a grade 2 machine-minder.
00:14:30If you were a grade 1 machine-minder, you had a white skin.
00:14:35And everybody loved him for what he was. And he was so good as a cricket. He was just a
00:14:39natural.
00:14:41If Basil came to bat, we were all, how would I say, subdued.
00:14:49You know, knowing here comes a man that can score runs.
00:14:52He could take command of a situation. That was his determination.
00:14:58From the first ball, he could tear you apart.
00:15:02He could pierce the fields. He could put the ball through the gaps. He had all that.
00:15:08But while D'Olivera was the most gifted cricketer of his generation,
00:15:12the tragedy is that in his prime, his colour meant that he could never be selected to play for his
00:15:18own country.
00:15:20And that's even better than the other two or three we've seen.
00:15:26Beautiful to watch him play, isn't it?
00:15:30Good shot. Great shot. Great shot.
00:15:36Shot.
00:15:37Got it.
00:15:43Got it, got it, got it.
00:15:45I'll play, it'll play.
00:15:48Dolivera's sporting achievements embodied the hopes of the non-white majority in South Africa.
00:15:54my proudest moment would have been when i saw basil come out with a cricket bat out of that
00:16:00pavilion at newlands which he deserved the law however prohibited it instead of playing he was
00:16:08only allowed to watch test cricket at newlands and even that only from the colored enclosure
00:16:15that's class that's class you know we said on the right hand side there between zed and y said and
00:16:22why we could only sit there a little bit that was known as the cage okay why was it called
00:16:27to get
00:16:27fenced off and we could only sit there job they make it look so easy don't they and that area
00:16:35everybody was anti-south africa and pro any visiting team we supported all the incoming teams never
00:16:43supported the africa you needed to bring them out of that area now today you come here and you sit
00:16:50here and watch this i mean look at it magnificent when they got in out there was joy
00:17:23the fact is that dolivera was a phenomenon during the 1950s scoring over 80 centuries in so-called
00:17:29non-white cricket in 1958 basil was made captain of the first non-white south african cricket team
00:17:39the white men still only believed that they played cricket no black ever played cricket he
00:17:45successfully led the tour to east africa his non-white team played three unofficial tests
00:17:52he was the captain of our side yeah and we beat the kenya hands down here and then we went
00:17:56to
00:17:57kenya and we beat kenya there too
00:18:04kenya there too
00:18:05kenya there too
00:18:05shot great shot
00:18:06great shot
00:18:14kenya there too
00:18:15during that period there would have been eight or nine non-white cricketers that would make the south
00:18:19african side on merit basil would have kept the south african team on merit
00:18:27he would have been the cricketer in this country yeah because 15 years of his life was taken away
00:18:34yeah because of the restrictions in this country
00:18:38all i need is the chance give them the chance and then we'll work it out who's good and who's
00:18:41bad and
00:18:42who's indifferent i'm not saying we're good enough i'm not saying we're the best i'm not saying we'll
00:18:46play for south africa not that the whites but what i will say to you is put us together in
00:18:51the same
00:18:51arena we'll find out
00:18:52in my book there's only one winner
00:18:57i would put him on par with graham pollock barry richards and himself
00:19:02as the three greatest batsmen we ever produced
00:19:06while dolivera was scoring centuries militant opposition to the racist regime was fermenting
00:19:14now dolivera's ambition was to make cricket itself part of the political struggle
00:19:20after he had a taste of international cricket having played against the kenyans
00:19:24there were then plans afoot to to bring a west indian side out
00:19:28the audacious idea was to bring the best side in the world to south africa to play the non-whites
00:19:34we want to put our cricket on the map that was the whole thing then the world would know that
00:19:39there were other crickets than the white crickets in this country that tour was cancelled and basil
00:19:43wasn't too happy about that because he wanted to test himself against the best and i think that was
00:19:48actually a catalyst for him going to england as well because he realized there was no possibility of
00:19:52playing international cricket in 1960 dolivera's life changed he married his childhood sweetheart naomi
00:19:58but already in his late 20s he was frustrated by apartheid from realizing his sporting
00:20:03potential and was forced to try and make a name for himself abroad dear mr arlott being so very
00:20:11keen to play cricket in the lancashire league i just cannot refrain from availing myself of your
00:20:18generosity dexter played another controlled innings it was the great cricket commentator john arlott
00:20:25who changed his life there was a commentary on cricket on the radio and i would listen to it and
00:20:31this beautiful beautiful voice came across you know full-bodied voice you know you could see it
00:20:36now coming at you you see you can't make 200 in an hour and take nine for two and not
00:20:43be either a
00:20:43good batsman or a good bowler john arlott john arlott is a woman that did not even know about cricket
00:20:49they used to leave their pots and food to listen just to his voice
00:20:56a convinced opponent of apartheid arlott was determined to help him the consequences were to
00:21:03detonate the biggest controversy in cricket history
00:21:08and the correspondence leading up to dolly's immigration to england is now among the most
00:21:16treasured letters that survive in cricket written in that green ink i saw them go under the hammer
00:21:21at an auction a few years ago in his own country he couldn't play first class cricket he couldn't
00:21:28prove himself against top class players but just a few people like alan oakman pete sainsbury
00:21:34jim gray went out looked at him and said he was good one of the white cricketers who played against
00:21:40oliveira in south africa was opening bowler jack bannister now a cricket writer we'd heard about this
00:21:47chap dolly but when they hit that second ball of mine for six over extra cover i thought well here
00:21:52we go now let's see what happens and he was dazzling absolutely peter walker just kept looking at me at
00:21:57slip and raising his hands and saying what a genius the figures were good he'd never had a chance in
00:22:05his
00:22:05own country which was the desperate thing and because from his letters he seemed such a terribly nice
00:22:12chance they had to take this that this chap could play it took two years i think well i owe
00:22:19everything
00:22:20i have to john olive i think he started it all um how did it he just wrote to me
00:22:24one day i was in cave
00:22:25town february 1960 i won't forget it and there's a letter from him stating whether i'd like to play in
00:22:31the leagues as a professional now i have an offer for you to play as a professional in england this
00:22:36summer
00:22:36at last in 1960 middleton a lancashire league club had an unexpected vacancy for a professional
00:22:44at the princely sum of 450 pounds for the season this seems to me an opportunity you should seize
00:22:52will you please cable me your decision at the earliest possible moment the middleton club have a
00:22:58meeting on monday next what was your reaction naomi when you picked up that letter i took it to basil
00:23:05and i said it's all right you can go if it's a professional post in england it's all right
00:23:11no money in the bank no money in the pocket basil is married now you went to this bar at
00:23:16the grand
00:23:17hotel in adderley street cape town and on that day in january 1960 this man gave you new hope i
00:23:24would
00:23:24have taken him to england by rowing boat rather than see he missed this great opportunity the voice of the
00:23:30man who made it possible for you to come to england he's made the same 8 000 mile journey from
00:23:34cape
00:23:34time to yes to hear tonight your old pal benny bansdale
00:23:47dear mr arlott many many thanks for your letter received i have noted contents he was looking down
00:23:54hearted was he very very downhearted basil was standing there with his hands holding his chin
00:24:01telling me that he didn't have five pound next to his name and he wanted to call a deal off
00:24:06so what
00:24:07did you do i told basil basil you take a walk go home write a letter to the people concerned
00:24:14and
00:24:15leave the rest to me i will raise the money and then we between the three of us that's banster
00:24:20adam and
00:24:21myself we then decided to create a fundraising committee to raise funds to at least keep him there for six
00:24:29months a lot of white and non-white cricketers helped me in the task and within a short period of
00:24:35time we
00:24:36managed to raise 600 rands 600 pounds for uh for basil to go overseas muslims non-muslims white black yellow
00:24:46all of them did their little bit to see that basil gets overseas why did you want him to go
00:24:52so much
00:24:52to open doors for the others the race was not up to him but just as basil's sporting career was
00:25:01taking
00:25:02off so the political opposition in south africa was deepening the police shot dead 69 people at
00:25:09sharpville just days before dolivera was to leave for england it was a turning point and led directly to
00:25:16the anc declaration of the armed struggle there are many people who feel that it is useless and futile
00:25:25for us to continue talking peace and non-violence against the government whose reply is only savage
00:25:32attacks on an unarmed and defenseless people the arlet letters make clear that there was a political
00:25:39agenda right from the start i think asking him over here might change the sporting and to some
00:25:46extent the political face of south africa which seems to me very well worthwhile can you remember
00:25:52at the airport when i garlanded you i said one thing basil go and represent us if you do well
00:26:00if you do well we'll do well you have today become a legend in south african sport
00:26:08and we are proud of you basil thank you benny bansley thank you the job was for him to try
00:26:15and establish
00:26:16a name for himself in cricket and if he could do it then obviously somebody else's can also do it
00:26:22so
00:26:24i said well if anybody says that i gotta have a go i've got to have a go 28 year
00:26:28old basil d'olivera
00:26:29left south africa in late march 1960 on his shoulders he carried the hopes of the non-white
00:26:34community that he could challenge apartheid by playing cricket but he was amazed by what he found
00:26:40in england i've never seen a man so bewildered as basil was that day mrs olivera a white man calling
00:26:47me mrs olivera what the hell is going on i took him along to see john arlott and then when
00:26:53we caught the
00:26:53train to manchester i realized how utterly confusing it was for him to be one day away from the racial
00:27:00segregation laws of south africa well i was frightened out of my bloody wits once we're on the
00:27:05train he said where do i sit where do i eat the whole train is full of whites whites everywhere
00:27:13i'm
00:27:13sitting there like that i said oh christ almighty what's going on here anyway john said to me you're
00:27:18right battle i said yeah i'm fine i said there and again of course we started getting correspondence
00:27:23with basil so well i can't play on these pictures i don't know how to play on these things they
00:27:27wet
00:27:27they damp they got grass on they got i said i don't know how to play on it i kept
00:27:33it in the ball it was
00:27:33up in the air well you must have been very depressed oh of course i was yeah i mean the
00:27:40first thing he's
00:27:40missing home he wants to come home it's bitterly cold you can't cold the bat and you can't throw a
00:27:44ball and the moment touch your finger it's almost like your finger's gonna snap there was a lot of
00:27:49negatives coming from basil all the time and yet we were worried here at the at the moment just
00:27:55like please god he must make it i mean he's going to be the forerunner to what could happen in
00:27:59in the
00:28:00future come on nobody's going to help you you're not palsy is going to help you you want to do
00:28:05it
00:28:05yourself come on get up alone in a lancashire mill town playing as a professional on turf rather than
00:28:11matting wickets it was some weeks before he made good i got 70 i don't from there i never looked
00:28:18back
00:28:19it just happened from there but just a simple little word you know from eric price just to say
00:28:24let it come
00:28:35anyway mr arlott i am sailing for home today after a successful debut in the league
00:28:42on his return to cape town after that first brilliant season in lancashire he was given a
00:28:48hero's welcome already dolivera's cricket abroad was a thorn in the side of the apartheid regime
00:28:54the streets were lined with cheering crowds naturally the boor i hope you can pronounce
00:29:01the african word mr arlott were aghast that a darkie could get such an ovation and the opening created
00:29:10now for our colored cricketers is all due to your efforts for which i and all south african non-white
00:29:17cricketers will always be grateful could you please let me know when i will be allowed to play county
00:29:24i'm interested john arlott regarded what he was able to do for basil dolivera as simply the greatest
00:29:31achievement of his life dolivera became a british citizen in 1964
00:29:50and from then on uh he established himself in the worcestershire side and then finally with england
00:29:55in 1966 and it was brilliant to see how well he did dolivera had been in england for six years
00:30:01when
00:30:02he was selected to represent his adopted country i tell you you could cry i mean it's achievement one of
00:30:10the great achievements i mean not being selected for your own country and you go and play in another
00:30:15country at his age and still make the english team it was a great decision it was a great moment
00:30:20in our
00:30:21lives it gave us the motivation to carry on even thinking about it now that i have been select and
00:30:28played for england it's just you know just seems like a dream to me i mean it's unbelievable if basil
00:30:33that would die vals at that time is his real age he wouldn't have played to you work out when
00:30:38when did
00:30:39he play for england though dolivera told the selectors that he was 31 he was in fact 34 an age
00:30:47when most
00:30:48sportsmen have already retired his england debut was made against the mighty west indians it was at lord's
00:30:59the home of cricket and the first initial thing i'm on the balcony i had my england sweater on and
00:31:06i stood there you know and i looked out and i thought jesus i've made it i've done it i've
00:31:13done it
00:31:18now a little twinkle in my eye and i felt very very very very sad i just stood there because
00:31:24i then
00:31:24thought of my own you know the people living on top of that hill my friends my family
00:31:33and the national government that they've got to go you cannot get rid of me now i am in it
00:31:41was like
00:31:42putting the pie in the face of those that ruled you know they rejected the man they rejected all non
00:31:51-white
00:31:51sportsmen and here he came back and he proved to them that i am the class and i can represent
00:32:00the
00:32:01country and i'm representing england for that matter so that's not bad is it that means something
00:32:06doesn't it and luckily a run out for 27 in his first innings he was nevertheless an immediate success
00:32:14in his second test match he hit four massive sixes off the formidable west indian fast bowling attack
00:32:20he was a very attacking player i think he's the only player in the world that has hit me for
00:32:26six
00:32:27in front of the game well how did you feel when he did that well i i i i went
00:32:32to visit are you crazy
00:32:34he said before another one i hit you again but in the words of clr james basil d'oliver destroyed
00:32:42the myth
00:32:43of the invincibility of the west indian fast boys i don't know what happened but i know it went over
00:32:50long on and that's a big ground and that is not funny you know i don't think up to now
00:32:57he hasn't
00:32:58apologized no what i did to you my most sincere apologies oh boy we were imagining all this because
00:33:07i never saw a single innings of these since he went to england how did you feel when he got
00:33:12his 88
00:33:13and listen he's not only my school friend he's success was our success it meant that we are capable
00:33:24of going to the top that winter he was included in the ncc tour of the west indies leading one
00:33:31run for
00:33:34victory gibbs comes in bows to dolivera and he's played around the corner and they're taking it
00:33:39england have won england won a memorable victory a wonderful victory by seven wickets with probably
00:33:47two balls to go just wondering basil what's going to happen in the possible event even the likely event
00:33:54of your being selected for the next mcc tour of south africa now this is something you must have thought
00:34:00about although obviously you wouldn't plan for because you can only take life as it comes yeah
00:34:06i think at this stage i would prefer to take life as it comes and if it comes about that
00:34:12i am still
00:34:13playing at that time and invited to join the side i think i will then make a decision i'll have
00:34:19to do
00:34:20what it will be i don't know for d'olivera to play test cricket in the country of his birth
00:34:26would be the culmination of his boyhood dream for the mcc committee at lord's however that question
00:34:34of whether it was possible to select d'olivera an englishman seen in south africa as a colored for
00:34:40the forthcoming 1968 tour of south africa was a time bomb waiting to explode it's important to remember
00:34:48that the d'olivera affair unfolds against a background of unprecedented global political
00:34:55protest the culture of protest had spread in 1968 to every country in the world virtually and you have
00:35:03to remember earlier in 1968 in the united states you've seen the assassination of martin luther king
00:35:08and his subsequent huge uh violent insurrections in nearly all the black ghettos in the united states
00:35:14violently suppressed by the army you had the events in may in paris in 68 the government was nearly
00:35:22overthrown in august you had the soviet invasion of czechoslovakia whether it was in pakistan india
00:35:33sri lanka australia and of course in south africa itself this was a year of huge political ferment it
00:35:42was a year in which young people of all kinds were out in the streets protesting around a wide number
00:35:48of
00:35:48issues
00:35:58and the d'olivera affair is in a sense the ripple of that global tide of protest felt in the
00:36:05backwater of
00:36:05cricket sport was so dear to to white south africa and for black people who didn't have the
00:36:12vote it was actually a very very important tool to to ask the outside world uh to lobby the outside
00:36:18world not to play against white south africa and i think that played a major role in the demise of
00:36:23apartheid we whites in this country have a right to maintain our white identity under all circumstances
00:36:32the south african prime minister in 1968 was john foster we have not only said that we have a right
00:36:39to
00:36:40maintain our white identity in the face of pressure he was a man prepared to take as aggressive a posture
00:36:46as necessary to maintain the status quo
00:36:52what you've got to understand about foster at the time is that the one thing he couldn't accept was
00:36:56the idea of d'olivera coming out as a south african born colored as a part of an england team
00:37:01that this uh would not be accepted by his party so what he tried to do was to ensure that
00:37:09d'olivera
00:37:10wasn't selected for the england team to tour south africa but without uh stating publicly that d'olivera
00:37:18was not allowed but we also say to the world and it is necessary at this very stage to say
00:37:23it
00:37:24that as far as south africa is concerned we won't be governed from anywhere outside south africa
00:37:34the racism in south african cricket far from being challenged had in fact been accepted by white
00:37:41cricketing countries for a century south africa continued to play international cricket on its own
00:37:46terms which is south africa said we will only play white countries and it played the country that it
00:37:50historically had played with which was new zealand england and australia at no time during all those
00:37:56decades did anyone within the mcc or the icc breathe the slightest objection to south africa's
00:38:04policy of open policy of refusing to play anyone but white nations the question is would the english
00:38:12establishment which ran cricket through the mcc from lords now begin to plot with the south african
00:38:18authorities in an attempt to save them from the embarrassment of dolivera's presence in a touring team
00:38:32mcc's role was not very um glorious the mcc saw south africa as its old friends it did not see
00:38:39any
00:38:40reason to uh exclude south africa well we think that um cricket playing cricket and international
00:38:47cricket can do nothing but good and as far as the mcc was concerned south africa was part of that
00:38:52closey club world it's uh wrong to um isolate south africa whose cricketers we all know and respect and
00:39:01very fine cricketers indeed because of uh the government's policy it's not the cricket association's
00:39:10policy it's the government's policy and they can do nothing about it with dolivera south africa was
00:39:15presented for the first time with the problem of playing against a non-white cricketer playing for
00:39:20one of his traditional countries it objected to that and that in a way brought home to england what the
00:39:27problem of playing cricket with south africa was which it hadn't crystallized to that extent and it
00:39:32led to the sort of the demonstrations and the and the protests and so on i mean this was the
00:39:36late 60s
00:39:37the time of awakening on other fronts and so on the people are engulfed by the tear gas
00:39:43the outgoing president of the mcc was sir alec douglas hume former prime minister hume spoke to
00:39:50dolivera about the prospect of his being selected for the south african tour actually i saw him
00:39:56by uh colin cadrey as colin said i think you ought to go and see him because this is a
00:40:02huge
00:40:02political issue is not cricket any longer he said to me basil he said don't don't ever come off that
00:40:11cricket food so what he was saying was don't get involved in politics don't get involved yeah because
00:40:16you haven't got enough time for that to play the game is hard enough and so dolivera though the focus
00:40:23of attention resolved to say nothing to the press during 1968 about his possible inclusion in the
00:40:29side to tour south africa all i've got is that cricket bat i've got nothing else i've got nothing
00:40:37else i got no position i got no money and with no one i've only got that cricket bat australia
00:40:45was in
00:40:45england during the summer of 1968 dolivera was determined that when the site to tour south africa was
00:40:51announced at the end of the season he would be in it you know so i started and i got
00:40:5780 against the
00:40:57aussies dolivera playing in innings of calm judgment and controlled aggression there were times during
00:41:03the morning when it seemed that poco might stay with him while he scored a century but gleason killed
00:41:09that thought i got it's 87 and i played bloody well i'll tell you that though he was in fact
00:41:13one of the
00:41:14very few englishmen to score runs in the match dolivera was inexplicably it seemed at the time
00:41:19dropped by the selectors do you remember why you decided to drop him specifically no afterwards specifically
00:41:27no but there was this kind of background of uh no i would i would i would refute that absolutely
00:41:37and
00:41:37totally if there's if there ever has been any implication that people like alec bedzer don kenyon
00:41:44les ames um you know apart from the sort of toffee knows a lot had any motive other than picking
00:41:52a cricket team for england then as far as i'm concerned forget it i i it was a lousy three
00:42:00months for
00:42:01me it was a lousy three months for the other selectors uh all sorts of motives were were implied
00:42:07and they were absolutely totally wide of the mark dolivera no longer in the england team returned to his
00:42:16county worcester and now as a bowler topped the county averages
00:42:23but behind the scenes the south african government was plotting against him as can now be revealed
00:42:31what was happening you were actually getting collaboration between the south african
00:42:35cricket association and foster to try and prevent dolivera's selection of course at this point of
00:42:42the season dolivera had been dropped from the england team and the south africans wanted to keep it that
00:42:47way and then later in july um the attempt to bribe dolivera is made to make himself unavailable dolivera now
00:42:57received a call from a south african somebody offered you money not to go didn't they yes
00:43:06tinny west season well that was cooked up in foster's own office he said now the situation
00:43:12has arisen where you haven't played all that ball this season i see you keen to coach
00:43:19um maybe we could help an offer was to be made to dolivera to come and coach in south africa
00:43:26so i said
00:43:27what do you mean man maybe you can help he says well we can produce some money to pay for
00:43:33you
00:43:34your wife and your kids and your children to go live in south africa flat house car the whole work
00:43:40so
00:43:40caboodle is yours um it looks if you're not going to play for england again so what are you going
00:43:47to
00:43:47do i mean you got a golden opportunity and i said no i said i got to think about it
00:43:52so he said well
00:43:54we'll offer you 50 000 quid yeah the condition for the money was that i should make myself unavailable
00:44:01for england what did you say to that oh i said i can't do that he said what you've got
00:44:05to what else
00:44:06you've got you've got nothing else they didn't realize what i was fighting what i was after what
00:44:12i wanted i had to get this thing back and i want to be picked i want to play for
00:44:19it i want to go to
00:44:20south africa time was running out as the last test match of the summer approached at last high
00:44:28summer came to the cricketers and their followers for the fifth test at the oval
00:44:32the 11th hour battle was picked it gave him the chance he needed the story is that i was picked
00:44:40for a test match against australia at the oval fifth one lorry lost the toss and england went to bat
00:44:48on an amiable oval pitch and i pulled out 24 hours 48 hours before and the next thing i heard
00:44:56that
00:44:57baz had been picked in my place and i thought well that's strange i'm an amy batsman i mean he's
00:45:01a
00:45:01number five and a scene bowler um interesting selection he was a surprise choice some people
00:45:10saw it as a provocative choice maybe we'll never know but if he'd not been chosen for that fifth test
00:45:16there wouldn't have been any hells of protest milburn announced himself thunderously immediately after this
00:45:24match the selectors would pick the team to tour south africa once more it was edrich who stayed
00:45:30john edrich has scored 164 that was the platform for the big england total that was necessary
00:45:37they could have fallen away after that but dolly came in what number six thereabouts
00:45:44as thursday had been edrich's day so friday was dollar zero's he lifted england's scoring rate not
00:45:51beyond the limit of safety but healthily and steadily with his own particular range of spokes
00:45:59basil d'olivera's innings it was a typical dolly performance
00:46:10there it is must be it's a hundred to d'olivera
00:46:15he'd be playing to go to south africa where his life would basil no doubt about that he'd want to
00:46:21go i want to go back there and show them and that's what he'd be playing for and that's probably
00:46:25why he did so well in that particular match he thought this is my last chance to make it to
00:46:31get on that
00:46:31that was a good stroke and it's four runs he got well on top of that part i think we
00:46:37did say amongst
00:46:38ourselves that's put the cat amongst the pigeons and that's a fine shot i felt that there was no one
00:46:46that could stop me on that day i'm not a braggart i'm not a beard but there was just nothing
00:46:50and
00:46:50nobody else going to stop me wickets fell regularly at the other end but dollar the era contrived enough
00:46:56of the bowling to play in innings of 158 before a full over ground and the crowd was at the
00:47:02oval they
00:47:03sensed they felt it what a good shot it was his chance to prove that he really was one of
00:47:13the
00:47:13world's great all-rounders berza was a good player he really was he had a he had his own technique
00:47:23had a very short back lift very powerful in the forearms that's a lovely shot beautiful strike but
00:47:30i tell you if you over pitched it as a spinner it just used to knock you back over the
00:47:33head like
00:47:33that boom six like that right six right short arm jabster well that's a fine square drive there on
00:47:42the offside it's going to be cut off there two runs for gollivera he was the man who went out
00:47:47there and
00:47:48bowled the little dobblers that picked up a key wicket or
00:47:54he would play a key innings for you and if ever there was a key innings this was the one
00:48:01and he squacked that down to long leg he was a natural cricketer and you'll never see anyone
00:48:07quite like dolly in the manner of his stroke play and uh england took some sort of hold on the
00:48:15game
00:48:15well the highlight of course has been this really superb innings from from basil dolivier that's a
00:48:20good hit i can't recall ever seen him play better than this nice cut up the third man a wonderful
00:48:25in this to watch and great value for this big crowd at the oval today do you think it must
00:48:29certainly have
00:48:30uh bought him a ticket to south africa oh i think without any doubt at all they can't afford to
00:48:34leave
00:48:41him over and we were overjoyed and we were all waiting with our fingers like this hoping that
00:48:46they will allow basil to come into the country because now for the first time ever we're going
00:48:50to see one of our guys playing for england against south africa and the captain avidly watching the play
00:48:58i think it would have been a huge tester for many many many people because if i'm picked i'm ready
00:49:05to
00:49:06go the south african government's going to get the humiliation of having to back me and that was
00:49:12the problem that the mcc were trying to avoid it's been a beautiful innings there from basil d'olivera
00:49:20who's played some glorious strokes all around the wicket
00:49:25and they mean he scored at 150 because we thought now they can't leave him they will
00:49:29believe i know everybody wanted him to come everybody means a lot of whites also that wanted him to come
00:49:36well to d'olivera and it is 150 150 to d'olivera his highest ever test score a wonderful innings
00:49:47there's no doubt about it at all chosen at the last moment predo couldn't play and in came d'olivera
00:49:55and he's played this magnificent innings we took this as a political thing now now the government
00:50:00must open their ears and their eyes and they must look at their laws now here is a colored man
00:50:06that
00:50:06could not play for south africa who's now gone to england qualified in terms of residential qualification
00:50:12came back here now to play for england against the guys and we are now going to support england and
00:50:18hope and pray that basil will perform and everybody was waiting for that moment to happen
00:50:24there's the man who's played so well today has written himself a ticket for south africa in so doing
00:50:34one cannot overestimate how significant this innings was in the bigger world outside cricket
00:50:45lorry the left-hander
00:50:51and a good run good single illingworth having to hurry dolly must have thought that that 158
00:50:57had got him on to the aircraft to tour the land of his upbringing which would have been an extremely
00:51:04emotional affair for him and for a lot of other people
00:51:12it's well caught good catch a gentle little sweep played by dollar vera and the ninth england wicket
00:51:18down dollar vera out caught in variety bold mallet for 158
00:51:26well the end of a really superb image from basil dollar vera
00:51:30and this huge crowd at the oval all now standing up applauding him all the way back
00:51:37and as you walk back to the pavilion at the oval yes that's what you're thinking yes
00:51:43and in again i'm here i walked off the whole ground stood up the whole ground stood up
00:51:50there can be no prouder man than basil oliveira as he makes his way now through the crowded pavilion
00:51:56i've done it now
00:51:59i've done it now it's all come right
00:52:05it's all come right and i was in the shower when the door opened and there was colin and he
00:52:10came in
00:52:11and he said well played he said well played really well played you know you look good
00:52:18the signs are going to be announced on tuesday
00:52:23you're going to be in it i'm going to back you
00:52:27i said okay fine but this is can you imagine what's going to happen here i said no i can't
00:52:33and i said neither can you because you don't know but i'll tell you one thing i said i'm not
00:52:40scared of the situation i'll handle my corner you handle yours i'll handle mine and we'll see you through
00:52:50the match itself was to have an extraordinary finale
00:52:54i was here in 1968 and it's still 35 years on the in the top five of my most memorable
00:53:02matches
00:53:03for its own sake quite apart from the political aftermath which um probably took away from that
00:53:09match it was a sensational final day jarman was in within variety when a couple of minutes before
00:53:14lunch at 86 for five the players went off for the first drops of a thunder shower which in less
00:53:20than
00:53:20an hour reduced the oval to a series of minor lakes all hope was lost uh the australian journalists
00:53:28they'd actually filed their stories that australia had won the series since this was going to be a
00:53:33draw and they were saying send her down huey as the rain poured down and then the public went out
00:53:40with
00:53:40their pikes and they helped the groundsman to make it just about playable and may we wonder whether they
00:53:47would have found quite so many volunteer assistance of the positions of england and australia had been
00:53:51reversed thanks to the mass effort play could start at a quarter to five an hour and a quarter left
00:53:58when australia had no chance of scoring 266 and england wanted five more wickets
00:54:04and it only seemed possible that they'd take them if the drying wicket misbehaved it never did it was too
00:54:11wet
00:54:13still cowdery set an unheard of field and shuffled through his hand of bowlers
00:54:18hopefully but with no advantage for 40 minutes
00:54:23this was to be a great day for english cricket and dolivera was to play a decisive
00:54:29role then dolivera his fifth bowler since play restarted floated one past no stroke at all from
00:54:36jarman and clipped away the off bail he's out well there we are there's the first wicket dolivera has
00:54:44got it an involuntary sort of shot he didn't get a lot of wickets but he got some key wickets
00:54:49what more
00:54:49could a captain want and happy but no no that was the the floodgates opening up a coward he brought
00:54:57underwood on at this end and he finished with seven foot he's out
00:55:06he's out is he caught it was a shaker we were absolutely shaking with excitement and he got him
00:55:11burn him hot stump knocked out of the ground and australia are 120 for nine with just one wicket to
00:55:19go
00:55:19and ten minutes and a half left getting inverarity in the last over of the day
00:55:29appeal he's out he's out ww england have won and the series is drawn
00:55:48so the 1968 series a series all too full of rain and frustration had ended in sunshine but on a
00:55:55high
00:55:56dramatic note a very happy england captain with every good reason what a marvelous finish it was
00:56:03got it i've done it i mean i've got to be picked how the hell can they not pick mares
00:56:08one of the 16.
00:56:10they can't drop me so i've done enough and i will do some more and when you come to help
00:56:16to select the
00:56:16side to go to south africa are you going to allow yourself to be influenced by anything except purely
00:56:20cricketing considerations uh no we've got to sit down in about 45 minutes time in fact and pick the
00:56:28best team in england which will beat south africa and so a highly politically charged thing is now
00:56:35left to the selectors he was worried about the politics wasn't he yeah very worried very much
00:56:40worried but he was going to back me he told me he did tell you that he did tell me
00:56:45he's going to back
00:56:46me do you think he really did i think he would have done yes with the england selectors in session
00:56:53at the moment tonight dolivera waits in silence to hear whether he is to achieve his life's ambition
00:56:58to play test cricket in the country of his birth and then came the bombshell the mcc committee dropped him
00:57:08so we've now got the bizarre situation where they didn't have to bring him back for the oval test
00:57:13he scored 158 and they haven't picked him to tour south africa and we as colored people cricketers
00:57:21accuse the english authorities of bowing down to our government here why do you think you weren't
00:57:27selected for the south african tour i think i was set up
00:57:34they hadn't a lot to do they you know it was all i've given it all to them it was
00:57:38laid out on the plate
00:57:39i was set up you know that they had a golden opportunity from documents in prime minister
00:57:45forster's archive in south africa which have now been opened we can today reconstruct what actually
00:57:52happened during 1968. the powers that be at the mcc had known for some time that to choose dolivera
00:58:03would result in the cancellation of the tour and would then open the pandora's box about the general
00:58:09question of english cricket relations with south africa and the question is had the selectors
00:58:15been informed that he is selected um the tour will go up and smoke and you know so that's the
00:58:22smoking gun
00:58:23thing unknown to anybody at the time the ruling elite at the mcc had been in contact all year with
00:58:30the
00:58:30apartheid authorities in what amounted to a conspiracy to allow the tour to go ahead and alec
00:58:36douglas hume and colin cowdery were at the center of it this is how it worked douglas hume told
00:58:42cowdery um this is a discussion in the the summer of 1968 we wanted relationships kept as warm as
00:58:49possible in the current climate he didn't want to put any unnecessary pressure on the foster government
00:58:56i think that the way to overcome the difficulties presented by apartheid and the south african internal
00:59:02policies is to have as many contacts as possible the mcc wrote a letter to the south african
00:59:10cricket association at the beginning of 1968 saying are we free to select who we want to select on this
00:59:17tour or are there any restrictions we uh sent a warning to the south african government to say
00:59:22that we expected them to accept the tour that was selected in its entente sir alec douglas hume had
00:59:28seen foster in cape town and foster told douglas hume if you ask me now to guarantee that i'll let
00:59:37olivera in my answer has got to be no douglas hume goes back to the mcc committee personally and says
00:59:45look
00:59:46don't ask for guarantees now ever the politician douglas hume had ulterior motives for wanting the mcc to
00:59:54be compliant with the south africans so alec douglas hume's agenda was a wider political agenda he was
01:00:01trying to get south africa on board for dealing with smith and udi in rhodesia he felt that if you
01:00:09press foster into a corner on the sports issue you're going to make him even more embattled and he was
01:00:15going
01:00:15to be less willing to help the british government dealing with the the rhodesian problem however
01:00:21there is further incriminating evidence that the mcc knew full well that dolivera would never be
01:00:27acceptable to the south africans foster sends a more direct message to the mcc via lord cobham which is
01:00:34to the effect don't even think about it if you select dolivera we will not let him in the tour
01:00:39will be
01:00:40cancelled cobham's message was fatal for dolivera's chances and this is why the information is handed
01:00:47over to the trio who control the affairs of the mcc griffith the secretary of the mcc to gilligan
01:00:54who's president of the mcc and to gabby allen who's treasurer of the mcc that a dolivera will never be
01:01:00acceptable to foster the question is were the selectors themselves told about cobham's message
01:01:07his view was never passed on to the selectors no
01:01:13so you never heard about it until after that's right
01:01:18so which minutes have gone missing it's the minutes of the selection committee
01:01:27they're not available in the lord's archive but we do know that the meeting went on for about five hours
01:01:34well there was a chairman and three other selectors and the captain in fact there were at least ten
01:01:40people in that room at lord's this was because the mcc committee always provided observers whose job was
01:01:47to make sure that touring teams would be acceptable to their hosts who were the mcc observers on that
01:01:54occasion i mean the very very good it was gabby allen and arthur gilligan both of them been captains of
01:02:00england clearly gabby allen who was there and gilligan who was there knew that if dolivera was selected
01:02:05there would be no tour that foster would not accept him and um how they conveyed this or didn't convey
01:02:17it
01:02:17to the selectors uh it's one of the things that we don't know though we may not know exactly what
01:02:22was
01:02:22but as said at the meeting something can be discerned from the backgrounds of some of those present
01:02:29gilligan who was the president of the mcc in that year in 68 but in the 1930s he had been
01:02:34a member of the british union of fascists
01:02:37and had contributed an article for the british union of fascist magazine about cricket uh the role of cricketers
01:02:43in which he said something to the effect that cricketers were vital because they strengthened the
01:02:48bonds of kinship by which he meant as the fascists did in those days the bonds of racial kinship among
01:02:55white people in the empire you know they've always denied that there was a political discussion there
01:03:01were no real views as such i swear i mean for weeks before the meeting we've been having messages from
01:03:08all
01:03:08sorts of sources about you know whether it be a good idea wouldn't be a good idea and what might
01:03:13happen
01:03:15and the messages coming direct from pretoria were never louder than earlier that summer at the lord's
01:03:20test against the australians arthur coy driving force of the south african cricket association and a
01:03:27confidante of foster was there but then arthur coy is sent over to england for the lord's test against
01:03:33the australians he's a guest of lord cobham and cobham is considered a major friend of south african
01:03:40cricket and he speaks to people like gilligan and gubby allen off the record and the whole idea was to
01:03:48keep this off the record that dollar vera would not be acceptable so the fact is that the president of
01:03:53the mcc knew and the treasurer of the mcc knew and the secretary of the mcc knew and they were
01:04:02all at
01:04:02the selection meeting what was the issue about dollar vera well dolly vera was a black south african
01:04:08oh well um a colored south african um south africa didn't allow colored south africans to uh to
01:04:16to uh play a part in their in their national sporting scene it's just as easy as that doug insel
01:04:26was chairman of the selectors who ultimately picked the team the others were peter may
01:04:32alec bedzer don kenyon and ex-officio the captain colin cowdry we can reveal that the only person who
01:04:40stood up for dollar vera in the meeting was don kenyon at that time of that selection
01:04:46he had a batting average in terms of 50. i mean he's an enormously high batting average he's
01:04:52sort of up there with the really great ivy i mean it's superb he had very very strong credentials
01:05:00there's no question about that he was a very useful cricketer and he was very popular in the side
01:05:05and that's why we picked him and uh so when the time came we didn't pick him doug in soul
01:05:13well he stayed and appeared in the paper didn't it as far as he was concerned
01:05:21they picked the best side ludicrously the justification was that
01:05:38freedom association which was a right-wing pressure group partly funded by the apartheid regime in
01:05:47south africa and that's not a secret that was publicly declared in their accounts at the time
01:05:51for the purpose of lobbying in britain for apartheid and for the south african system of white domination
01:05:59and here he was playing a key role in the decision of whether to include basil d'oliver in this
01:06:05tour
01:06:06they won't admit to it that it was politics and i'm sure for them it wasn't politics that they believe
01:06:14they chose that team on merit but they they were also aware if they had included d'olivera
01:06:22this would have led to the cancellation of the tour there's a failure of a moral imagination by the
01:06:28selectors mind you that is not what they used to choose them for to have a moral imagination but
01:06:32they must have but they should have understood that the only possible thing to do was to send
01:06:38basil d'olivera back to south they should have understood that pressure mounted both within and
01:06:43outside the mcc while they insisted that cricket should transcend politics and that cricket should
01:06:50not be tainted by this awful murky world as they sought of political intrigue and pressure groups
01:06:58what they're really saying um is that cricket that only one kind of politics should be allowed to
01:07:04taint cricket because they were perfectly happy to have cricket tainted by the by the racial politics
01:07:09of apartheid for many many years if you like its inner workings was was laid open and people started
01:07:15questioning how the mcc worked how how cricket was run what were the basis of it which in a way
01:07:22in the past
01:07:22the mcc had always managed to avoid you know there's a concept of englishness which cricket generates
01:07:31now it can't take in all other concepts and when you have such a basic clash that apartheid produced
01:07:36then it can't cope with that because what it seeks to do is if you like disguise the basic clashes
01:07:42and
01:07:42say ah the question is did he play correctly did he wear the right clothes wear his flannels clean or
01:07:48not
01:07:48not whether you know whether it was treated right or wrongly on on on essential moral issues
01:07:54then came the twist tom cartwright who had been chosen in preference to dolivera turned out to be
01:08:00injured now the cartwright issue and he he was the the real catalyst of what happened with that tour
01:08:07he was never ever fit to have been selected because of a shoulder problem i knew that and yet the
01:08:13uh england selectors took medical advice that he was fit and they picked it cartwright pulled out and
01:08:20the selectors who had been shocked at the national outcry at dolivera's non-selection now had no option
01:08:26but to choose him we were so happy that he's going to come because now we can go see better
01:08:31play at new
01:08:32we were elated but the south african government wasn't that was difficult it became a makeup job you
01:08:40know it became a job that's not clean anymore to me because now they were clearly daring to pick a
01:08:48man
01:08:48who surely was not going to be easily accepted by the then government of south africa and indeed
01:08:56dolivera's selection was to be a fateful decision but his initial non-selection had let foster off a huge
01:09:04political hook that is the mcc selection committee they made their choice on merit so they said time
01:09:13and again and i accept that statement but so the moment the decision was known there was an outcry
01:09:24an outcry because a certain gentleman of color was omitted on merit by the mcc selection committee
01:09:35from then on sir dolivera was no longer a sportsman but a cricket ball foster was then able to claim
01:09:46that dolivera had been forced on the mcc by political pressure the team has constituted now
01:09:56it is not the team of the anti-apartheid movement but he'd been let off the hook because his cabinet
01:10:08had already decided that if dolivera was ever included in the team the tour was off i now say on
01:10:15behalf of
01:10:16south africa whereas we were always prepared to play host to the mcc we are not prepared to receive
01:10:26a team thrust upon us his prohibiting dolivera from coming into the country meant that he was able to
01:10:35appease that right-wing opinion and keep his party and his leadership intact
01:10:42he can't he can't play he can't come to that that was that was safe that was safe
01:10:49sir alec what's your first reaction to the announcement made by premier foster last night
01:10:54well one of uh disappointment for british cricket of course because it'd be a long time i take it before
01:11:00another tour can go to south africa if mr foster's words are final what would have happened if there
01:11:05hadn't been all the political belly who of recent uh weeks you know about belly about mr dolivera's
01:11:11non-selection i don't know they might have taken the team but at any rate it's a very sad day
01:11:16for
01:11:16cricket this announcement by the south african prime minister the mcc committee therefore decided
01:11:21unanimously that the tour will not take place i mean obviously i mean we were bitterly disappointed
01:11:28but at the same time we admire the english authorities then for cancelling the trip to south africa and not
01:11:34saying we are now going to go without basil the south african government had introduced race into
01:11:39sport in a way which has never been done before not even hitler's germany could prevent jesse owen
01:11:44running in the 1936 olympic hitler may not have shaken hands with him but jesse owen actually ran in
01:11:50the nazi olympics in berlin the south africans had introduced a system whereby non-whites just did not
01:11:56play representative matches in south africa in any form and the dolivera issue suddenly crystallized it all
01:12:02in one single issue of a man who has chosen england made his home here proved himself he selected and
01:12:09then a prime minister of a country making a speech to his party congress says he becomes suddenly an
01:12:16english cricket selector and says no you can't select him now that the whole issue then became
01:12:21very symbolic in how sport and politics interact and only sport and politics with sport and race interact
01:12:27even those who were not political who didn't really understand the situation the average
01:12:31cricket fan they have the situation in south africa didn't know much about apartheid who
01:12:36followed the argument that politics should be separated from from cricket and adhered to that
01:12:41as a matter of principle were also angry that a top england cricketer because that's what he'd become
01:12:47by 1968 uh playing in test matches for england was actually being excluded on an instruction of a foreign
01:12:53government as the tour was finally bowled out by politics basil dolivera was in london signing copies
01:13:00of his book i would have had or been the only one up till now would have had the opportunity
01:13:07of going there
01:13:08playing on these grounds and mixing with people which i or the other non-whites in south africa has never
01:13:14been allowed to mix with before and in this way i think if you go there and you talk with
01:13:19them and
01:13:20you meet them on the same plane in the cricketing plane you know that say a cocktail party or on
01:13:25the
01:13:25field or in the hotel where you're staying you're talking to people all the time and in this way you
01:13:31can put across to them that after all both i and a lot of other non-whites are not such
01:13:37bad people to live
01:13:38with from then until even now as i go around you know they were talking to me you were set
01:13:43up as a
01:13:44news and i still denied because of my love for the game you know i don't want to hurt people
01:13:49i don't
01:13:49want to destroy people i i just want good cricket to be played by good players as far as i'm
01:13:55concerned
01:13:55i've always abided by the laws made at lords by our administrators i think mr billy griffiths and his
01:14:03colleagues up there who make decisions for the game are men of integrity and men that can be trusted all
01:14:10the way
01:14:16everything bowels to the play in british society is that he helped alert people to the existence of
01:14:26apartheid to the existence of a social system in in south africa that was nightmarish and and
01:14:33inhumane basil was actually instrumental in the all the outside sporting bodies taking a stand against
01:14:40South Africa in terms of the politics.
01:14:43Basil D'Oliver's exclusion from the English cricketer to South Africa at the instructions
01:14:48of the South African government ignited real indignation in me.
01:14:53It was the thing that completely lit a fuse of real anger that the cricketer authorities
01:15:00here in England could still announce that they were inviting the white South African
01:15:05team barely a year later.
01:15:08Thus, the D'Oliver scandal was the match which lit the successful Stop the 70 Tour campaign
01:15:14led by Peter Hain.
01:15:16So I think Basil D'Oliver as a victim of apartheid actually helped, perhaps unwittingly, to bring
01:15:23down a sports apartheid at least.
01:15:26Peter Hain and these guys got it right in that the way to bring about change in South
01:15:31Africa was to get it at South Africa through the sport.
01:15:34The World Sporting Boycott actually moved this country probably faster to normalisation
01:15:40than any other activity because economic boycotts were really in word only.
01:15:51And once there wasn't an international sport certainly people started looking up and saying,
01:15:57well, you know, we want sport and we've got to make changes to bring it about.
01:16:01And I think they got it right, absolutely right.
01:16:04After the Australian Tour of 69-70, that was it.
01:16:07It was wilderness for 22 years for South Africa until democracy.
01:16:12And it became such that those who played the sport in South Africa on international level,
01:16:18they felt a pinch.
01:16:19They were not having visitors anymore.
01:16:21They were not welcome outside South Africa anymore and things like that.
01:16:26Things had to change.
01:16:27Sport played a very, very valuable part in the changeover of the set-up in this country.
01:16:39In 2003, South Africa completed her international rehabilitation into world sport by hosting the Cricket World Cup.
01:16:54South African cricket is now united.
01:16:57They're equal opportunities for all South African cricketers, black and white.
01:17:02It's a sports-made country.
01:17:04And the isolation policies, which, you know, gained momentum, which ultimately did isolate South Africa,
01:17:11not only sport and culture economically, had its effect, its impact on South Africa.
01:17:17And ultimately saw, you know, the destruction of this racist regime.
01:17:27The opening ceremony of the Cricket World Cup was held at Newlands,
01:17:31the test ground in Cape Town, where the young D'Oliveira was never allowed to play.
01:17:41To symbolize the new democracy, he and the great batsman, Graham Pollock,
01:17:46led the parade of South African sporting heroes.
01:17:50In the South African context, I mean, you know, history will record the enormous role he played
01:17:57and ultimately bring down the apartheid government.
01:18:08Basil had to go and show faster.
01:18:10This is what we can do.
01:18:12And he did it like nobody else could.
01:18:17Now, when Basil walked out at Newlands, that, I thought, was a marvellous gesture.
01:18:22Because he walked out first, ahead of Graham.
01:18:25And I respect Graham, but the fact that he walked out first,
01:18:29that put Basil in his rightful place.
01:18:32That's how I felt.
01:18:33And I just said, well, okay, Bas.
01:18:36Yes.
01:18:38I really felt, that was the day I felt.
01:18:43Thank you, Lord.
01:18:44And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen,
01:18:47the team of the Arsenal team for the World Cup 2003.
01:18:57So, Basil, you got to walk on Newlands then.
01:19:00Well, there you are.
01:19:00I've done it.
01:19:01I said I was going to do it.
01:19:02And you backed me.
01:19:03And there we are.
01:19:06Who knows?
01:19:08I might make a comeback.
01:19:16Bearing in mind that Basil played Test cricket between 35 and 40.
01:19:21He's got two and a half thousand runs.
01:19:23He's got five centuries.
01:19:24He's got 15 half centuries.
01:19:27He was Wisden's Cricket of the Year.
01:19:29He won the Lawrence Trophy for the fastest century in Test cricket.
01:19:32All at the age 35 and upwards.
01:19:40There's more from Not Cricket tomorrow night at nine,
01:19:43with the Hansi Cronje story.
01:19:45Back to tonight, though,
01:19:46and BBC Four tells the story of the Black Power salute, next.
01:20:21They were among the first to capture the world in a new light.
01:20:25They were looking for an exotic world.
01:20:27And the last to see it through such an innocent lens.
01:20:30The world of the late 1930s was a world in turmoil.
01:20:34Journeys of Discovery.
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