This morning I managed to finish sooner than expected a task I feared might have taken up most of the day. Having no urgent plans and a little time to spare I decided to catch up on some reading. By chance I picked up the volume issued to celebrate the 60th. anniversary of the satirical magazine Private Eye. Leafing through it, my eye was caught by a piece from their September 1968 edition.
The English cricket authorities had just decided to exclude from the team selected to tour South Africa a player named Basil D’Olivera. There was no doubt at all that he was one of the best players available in the country at the time. There was just one snag …. he was of mixed race. The selection committee had taken the decision not to include him in the team in order to avoid the possibility of any embarrassment that would have arisen by the challenge, that would have been presented by D’Olivera’s inclusion in the team, to South Africa’s apartheid laws.
The event was controversial at the time …. indeed, I remember it well. It is encouraging to compare this episode, however, with the current arguments going on in the cricket world. Back in 1968 the English Cricket Board was prepared, in effect, to lend its tacit support to a regime which mandated and enforced discrimination. Today, by way of contrast, the Board are coming down very heavily indeed on players who have been guilty of making even mildly discriminatory remarks about their colleagues who come from a different ethnic background.
At a time when political news in this country normally seems to be synonymous with bad news, it is encouraging to see evidence that some aspects of our society are more humane than they once were.