What if South Africa never exiled from cricket due to Apartheid?
Clive Rice [PC: Twitter]
The year 1991 proved to be a landmark year for South African cricket.
Why was this year so important for them? Well, they made their much awaited comeback at the international level after almost 20 years of exile from the game due to the Apartheid policy of the South African government.
Let us go way back in time in the year 1948 when the government of South Africa adopted the Apartheid policy, which deprived the Black Africans, and Asian Africans of socio-economic privileges.
The political consequences was also beared on the cricketing field as the Proteas only fielded white players in their team, despite the fact that players from other races were good enough to represent the country.
Things started heating up and the political turmoil caused a lot of controversy. The situation in the mid 60’s became unstable and the interior minister of South Africa, P.K. Le Roux stated that, “We will not allow mixed teams to play against our white teams. This is our policy, and it is well known here and overseas.”
Let us take the case study of Basil D’Oliveira
He was of Portugese-Indian descent and was arguably the best players going around in the country. Moreover, he was the captain of South Africa’s non-white team. However, due to the lack of game time, he migrated to England and soon started to represent the Three Lions at the international level.
Basil D’Oliveira was South Africa's best player in 60's [PC: Twitter]
Things started to get ugly when England had to tour South Africa in 1968. Months before the start of the tour, people from both the nations started pondering if D’Oliveira would make it into the squad.
The reason was quite bizarre as the South Africa government was against whites and non-whites to play against each other. It is interesting to note that at that time, MCC had the responsibility to select the England team and they maintained a healthy relation with the South African government. D’Oliveira’s name was their in the initial 30-member squad, but surprisingly his name was omitted when the final squad was announced.
The selectors at that time gave the reason that D’Oliveira’s form has not been good and they are trying other players in the team.
The news of his exclusion became a talking point in both the nations. The whites in South africa were happy with this news. A lot of former cricketers opined that D’Oliveira was omitted from the squad because of his race.
Destiny had something else planned for D’Oliveira. One of the selected members of the squad withdrew his name from the side and D’Oliveira was drafted in as his replacement. Hearing this news, the PM of South Africa made it clear that MCC are no longer welcome in their nation and they have played a brilliant political game.
His inclusion ignited fire in South Africa [PC: Twitter]
Eventually MCC had a fallout with the South African government, and that proved to be a game changer for the Proteas cricket. After a back and forth battle between MCC and the South African government, ICC had to intervene and voted for the ‘rainbow nation’ to be excluded from international cricket in 1970.
WHAT IF….
As a result, talented South African cricketers left the country, in search of a better opportunity. It would be fair to say that the standard of cricket went down and South Africa lost countless opportunities to prove their worth at the international stage. Their exile from the game deprived the likes of Graham Pollock, Mike Proctor, and Barry Richards to showcase their skills at the big stage. The likes of Alan Lamb and Tony Greig moved to England in search of better opportunity.
Greig was born in Queenstown [PC: Twitter]
The South African Union led by former cricketers urged the other nations to tour the rainbow nation. Throughout the 80’s, such rebellious tours took place, and teams even faced censure and bans from their respective boards.
 "Anurag Dasgupta")
