D'Oliveira changed cricket, especially in SA

Tony Becca, Contributing Editor

The world of cricket lost a great man last Saturday, not so much a great man by his deeds with the bat or the ball or in the field, but a great man, a super person, for his impact, his influence, on the game, especially in South Africa.

He died in England at the ripe old age of 80.

Basil D'Oliveira was born in Cape Town, South Africa, on October 4, 1931, but due to the practice of apartheid, he was never allowed to participate in South Africa's cricket, and, thus, was never able to represent the land of his birth.

Because of that historical injustice, he migrated to England in 1960, and starting at age 36 in 1966, represented his adopted country in 44 Test matches. He scored 2,484 runs, five centuries with a top score of 158, and averaged 40.06 while taking 47 wickets with his medium-paced away swingers.

After starting out at Middleton in the Central Lancashire League, D'Oliveira joined up with Worcestershire County Cricket Club in 1964 where he matched skills with England representatives Tom Graveney and Don Kenyon, and West Indian Ron Headley, before making his England debut, against the West Indies at Lord's.

He played his last Test match against Australia at the Oval in 1972.

Growing up in South Africa, D'Oliveira showed immense talent as a cricketer, but like so many before him, all doors were closed to him. He got no opportunity to play with white cricketers and to prove his skill against them, and so he went to England to seek his fortune.

Ironically, after playing for England, his first tour was expected to be to South Africa, but that was not to be. D'Oliveira, who was not in the original squad selected but got in as the replacement for an injured player, was barred from playing in South Africa and the tour was subsequently cancelled.

The cancellation was followed by an international ban on South Africa from all sports from 1970 to 1991 following the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.

avoided controversy

Throughout his cricketing years, the early days in South Africa, in England, playing for England, and after that, D'Oliveira never got involved in the controversy. He remained calm and cool, and for that he won the respect of the world.

D'Oliveira may have become a greater, more successful cricketer than he did had he played in his native land during his prime. He will forever be known, however, as the man who caused the sanctions in sports against South Africa, and as the man who, because of that, helped to dismantle the system of apartheid.

Ironically, the day D'Oliveira died was the day, the third day of the second Test match between South Africa and Australia, which ended in Johannesburg on Monday, that Hashim Amla, an Indian, who earlier could not play for South Africa, scored a century, 105, to leave South Africa with a chance of winning the Test match.

In a thrilling finish, Australia, led by the 36-year-old ex-captain, Ricky Ponting, and an 18-year-old debutant fast bowler, Patrick Cummings, got away with an exciting two-wicket win and a share of the two-match series.

On top of that, it was a memorable match; a match which was closely contested from start to finish, and a match which, despite their loss, demonstrated the change in South African life since the fall of apartheid,

Once upon a time, in the days of D'Oliveira, first-class cricket in South Africa was played by whites and before whites-only crowds.

s african fans together

Throughout this Test match, and since 1991, the release of Mandela, and the first tour by the West Indies more so over the last few years, South African fans, all of them - whites, coloured, Indians, and blacks - were sitting, laughing, and having a drink together, and waving their country's flag together, cheering on their team, together.

And in the Test match, apart from Amla, Ashwell Prince, a coloured batsman, scored 50, Vernon Philander, a black fast bowler, took five wickets in an innings, and Imran Tahir, a Pakistani wrist-spinner, took a few vital wickets in the match which will be remembered as one of the greatest ever played in South Africa.

It was something to see, and it was something which was not possible up to a few years ago, before 'The Basil D'Oliveira Affair'.

Because of Basil D'Oliveira, not only are coloureds, Indians, and blacks now playing for South Africa, but with Pommie Mbangwa of Zimbabwe, a black man, now a television cricket presenter for the Cricket South Africa; Gerald Majola, a black man, now chief executive officer of Cricket South Africa; and Haroon Lorgat, an Indian/South African, now chief executive officer for the International Cricket Council, things have changed in South Africa.

When England played the West Indies at Sabina Park in 1968, I did not recognise D'Oliveira, the coloured man, from the other members of the England team. I had to ask someone, "Where is D'Oliviera?"