The Hindu : Sport : Dolly's unfulfilled dream

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 16, 2004

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Sport

Dolly's unfulfilled dream

By Sanjay Rajan

INDIA VS SOUTH AFRICA TEST SERIES COUNTDOWN — 4 DAYS TO GO

CHENNAI, NOV. 15. Basil D'Oliveira's dream was to return to native South Africa as a free, equal member of an English Test team. Sadly though, it remained a dream.

In his autobiography, Time to Declare, Dolly, as he was known, described the summer of 1968 as "a nightmare punctuated by occasional bouts of euphoria." It was indeed a series of bewildering events. Dolly found himself at the centre of a controversy, a politically-inspired disputation which culminated in South Africa's expulsion from the international game in 1970.

His is a story of a Cape-coloured, who saw nothing but denial back home owing to the apartheid policy, but possessed the strength of character to find the freedom of opportunity and recognition in the cricket world.

John Arlott, who took it upon himself to give the talented but unknown cricketer from Signal Hill, Cape Town, a contract with Middleton in the Central Lancashire league in 1960, wrote, "D'Oliveira's saga provided comfort and hope to the non-white-skinned people of the many races in South Africa: offering them evidence that no government can completely cut off their right to prove themselves."

Dolly, who went on to play 44 Tests for his adopted country and with much success for Worcestershire, was not picked in the original squad which was to tour South Africa, despite his 158 in the final Test against Australia. Some felt his omission was in deference to South Africa's racial policy.

As it turned out, medium-pacer Tom Cartwright pulled out owing to injury, and when Dolly was chosen as replacement, South Africa's Prime Minister John Vorster said, "It is not an MCC team. It is the team of anti-apartheid movement. We are not prepared to accept a team thrust upon us. It is a team of political opponents of South Africa."

Naturally the MCC refused to be told as to who should make the squad. It was inevitable that the tour would be called off. For, had Dolly gone on it, the political ramifications would have struck the very base of the apartheid system, thereby breaking every existing apartheid law and exposing the hypocrisy that had existed in South Africa.

OBE awarded

The following year Dolly was awarded the OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for the dignity he had maintained during the trying phase.

Dolly came close to playing a Test against an all-white South African team in 1970. But with opposition to sporting contacts with South Africa swelling worldwide — in fact, a South African-born student, Peter Hain, launched the `Stop the Seventy Tour' committee in England — the British Government requested the Cricket Council to cancel the tour taking into account the likely impact on race relations in Britain and the effect throughout the Commonwealth.

The 1969-70 Springbok rugby tour of Britain was disrupted by demonstrators. Thereafter it was made clear to the SACA that no further tours would be agreed to until South Africa chose its teams on a multi-racial basis.

South Africa returned to the international fold as the United Cricket Board of South Africa almost 22 years later with a three-match limited-overs series in India in November 1991.

Dolly displayed that a sense of value is the most important element in the human personality.

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