Крикет в Южной Африке в эпоху апартеида

Cricket in South Africa

International cricket in South Africa between 1971 and 1981 consisted of four private tours arranged by English sports promoter Derrick Robins, two tours by a private team called the "International Wanderers", and one women's Test match. The apartheid policy followed by the South African Governments of the day meant that no Test match playing nation was willing to tour, thereby depriving world cricket of leading stars such as Graeme Pollock, Barry Richards, Clive Rice and Eddie Barlow.

Sport in South Africa had been divided on racial lines since the early white settlers, and cricket was no different. While Walter Read's Englishmen played against a non white team, the Malays, in 1891 92, it would be 65 years before non white South Africans played any other international cricket, with a team of Kenyan Asians touring against South African non whites in 1956. However, with apartheid becoming ever stricter over time and being legally mandated in 1948, no non white player was selected for the national Test team. This did not, however, stop white majority Commonwealth nations from playing white South African teams at cricket. The Basil D'Oliveira affair changed all that. D'Oliveira was a mixed race South African (partly black – "coloured" under the Apartheid classification): as he was ineligible to play for his national side, he emigrated to England and played for them instead, going on tour to the West Indies in 1967. His performance on that tour was not impressive, and he was omitted from the Ashes Test squads in the following summer until the fifth and final Test at the Oval. He scored 158 in that Test, and was expected to make it to the team to tour South Africa in winter. When initially he was not selected, there was great controversy in England, with D'Olivera being left in tears at the news, and English Test selectors and cricket officials being accused of pandering to the racism of the apartheid regime in South Africa. Then, when a vacancy became available after Tom Cartwright broke down during a County Cricket match, D'Oliveira was selected in his place. Upon hearing of this, South African Prime Minister John Vorster responded to his selection by saying that it was not a team of the Marylebone Cricket Club, but of the anti apartheid Movement: England's tour was immediately cancelled. However, Australia did tour in 1969/70, with the Proteas whitewashing them 4 0, making them de facto world champions of cricket. After this triumph, they did not play another official Test match for 22 years. Their tour to England was called off in 1970, with England hastily arranging a tour by a Rest of the World team which itself included three South Africans and South African born Tony Greig (who represented England in Test cricket). In September 1970, Garry Sobers, the West Indies' captain and their best cricketer caused controversy by playing in a double wicket competition in Rhodesia. Although Sobers spent only 48 hours in Salisbury, he had time for a meal with the prime minister, Ian Smith, and described him as a great man to talk to. Sobers' statement and his participation in the tournament caused backlash from Caribbean politicians who were vehemently opposed to apartheid and racism, with Guyanese prime minister Forbes Burnham saying Sobers was not welcome in his country until there was an apology, while the Jamaican government called for Sobers' resignation or ouster as captain, and the Indian prime minister, Indira Gandhi, barred the Indian cricket team from touring the West Indies until the matter was resolved. While Sobers initially argued that he had done nothing wrong as he was a cricketer, not a politician, he ultimately apologised in October 1970 when the scandal threatened to break up the West Indies Cricket Board. In the 1970s and 1980s, the South African Cricket Board ran a competition called the Howa Bowl, which was contested between non white teams.

South Africa tried to tour Australia in 1971, even going as far as suggesting that two black players, Dik Abed and Owen Williams were part of the team. Abed and Williams rejected the proposal. Also in 1971 Englishman Colin Cowdrey wanted to take a racially mixed team to South Africa and play separate black and white national teams. However, the coloured Board rejected the idea and persuaded Basil D'Oliveira to distance himself from it. Frank Waring, the Minister of Sport, declared that if cricketers from club level upwards declared that they were in favour of racially integrated cricket and their authorities, "Came to me and stated that this was the position, then I am fully prepared to take this matter to Cabinet". On 3 May 1971 the Rest of South African XI and Currie Cup champions Transvaal walked off the field at Newlands to protest against the government's sports policies. Charles Fortune, renowned South African commentator, suggested that it would be best to walk off instead of refusing to play which would effect the support for their actions. Players for South Africa included Graeme Pollock (captain), Mike Procter, Vincent van der Bijl, Peter Pollock, Hylton Ackerman, Denis Lindsay, Graham Chevalier, Arthur Short and Andre Bruyns. Players for Transvaal included Barry Richards (guest player), Brian Bath, Clive Rice, Peter Carlstien and Don Mackay Coghill (captain). Ali Bacher did not play because he was making up hours at the Baragwanath Hospital for time taken for cricket. Bacher’s South African team had beaten Australia 4—0 in their 1969/70 Test series. In another attempt to receive a touring international side to visit, the South African Cricket Association invited New Zealand to play three matches against multiracial sides when they were en route to England. However, New Zealand declined the offer.

During the early to mid 1970s there had been various attempts by the different South African cricket bodies representing the whites, coloureds and black to play multiracial cricket despite Government opposition. In June 1976, however, there were major political uprisings in South Africa. The main outbreak of civil strife was the Soweto Uprising, centred on Soweto, the black township attached to Johannesburg. On 16 June, thousands of schoolchildren rebelled against the education policy of the white minority government. Hundreds were killed; US newspaper Newsday estimated 332 had died in Soweto and 435 nationally. Many others went into exile. On 17 July 1976 the Montréal Olympics opened without 25 African countries (later joined by 4 others) who were boycotting the games as a result of New Zealand retaining sporting ties with South Africa – the New Zealand rugby union team were touring South Africa at the time. In the light of this political strife, new changes were proposed, which included the placing of a moratorium on tours to and from South Africa. In practice no international tour happened until the first of the South African rebel tours in 1982.