John Arlott - The D'Oliveira Affair

The D'Oliveira Affair

Basil D'Oliveira was a South African who was classified as a Cape Coloured by the apartheid regime and consequently he was ineligible to play first-class cricket. He wrote to John Arlott in the late fifties, after hearing his radio commentaries, because "his voice and the words he spoke convinced me he was a nice, compassionate man". He wanted help to find an opportunity to play professional cricket in England and Arlott finally got him a summer contract with Middleton Cricket Club in the Central Lancashire Cricket League in 1960. Arlott subsequently said that this was the achievement in his career of which he felt most proud. After topping the Central Lancashire League batting averages in his very first season he subsequently graduated to the first class county circuit with Worcestershire in 1964. After acquiring British nationality the following year, he was selected to play for England, making his Test debut against the West Indies at Lords in June 1966.

During the 1968 Ashes series, D'Oliveira scored 158 on his recall to the England side in the 5th Test Match at The Oval, which seemed to make his selection for the winter tour to South Africa a certainty. However when the touring side was announced he was controversially omitted amidst allegations of South African political interference with the selection committee. Arlott was incensed and condemned the selectors' decision in his press articles and publicly stated that he would not commentate on any matches involving the South African team during their scheduled tour of England in 1970. Arlott received support from many people over his uncompromising stand, including future England captain, Mike Brearley, who called for the cessation of all South African tours and the Reverend David Sheppard, who had been one of the first players to speak out against apartheid and who had also previously refused to play against the 1960 South African touring side. However, John Arlott was subjected to some strong, not entirely unexpected, criticism from the English cricket establishment over his stance particularly by the former England captain Peter May, a former public school boy and Test selector, who wrote directly to him condemning the position that he had adopted.

When Tom Cartwright subsequently had to drop out of the touring side because of an injury, D'Oliveira was selected as his replacement, which led to the tour's being cancelled by the South African government. The subsequent South African 1970 tour to England was also cancelled and they were then ostracised by the other Test playing countries. South Africa were then officially excluded from Test cricket for 21 years until they were reinstated by the ICC in 1991 following the South African government's legalization of the ANC and the release of Nelson Mandela.