0:00:04 > 0:00:07That's the way, four runs.
0:00:07 > 0:00:12Not a bad chance, I think, for everybody to meet England's latest cap - Basil D'Oliveira.
0:00:12 > 0:00:16APPLAUSE Hello, we got a crowd round here.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22Very soon you get the idea of what the people in these parts think
0:00:22 > 0:00:26of Basil D'Oliveira and his cricket for Worcestershire and England.
0:00:26 > 0:00:34This is the cricketing story of a lifetime, it tells of how one man and one innings lead ultimately
0:00:34 > 0:00:37to the downfall of a brutal political regime.
0:00:41 > 0:00:46The political fall-out from that innings resonates to this day.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50Tell us about your family in Cape Town.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54I don't think there is much to tell, our particular family is cross-bred
0:00:54 > 0:00:57between Portuguese and South African.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03That's a fine shot. That was a good stroke and it is four runs.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06He's played a magnificent innings.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10That innings, made in 1968, made an overwhelming case
0:01:10 > 0:01:15for D'Oliveira's inclusion in the forthcoming England tour of South Africa.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21The problem for the selectors was that he was racially classified
0:01:21 > 0:01:26as coloured in South Africa and was therefore forbidden from playing with whites.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32Indeed, D'Oliveira had been forced to leave the country of his birth
0:01:32 > 0:01:37and change his nationality in order to play Test cricket at all.
0:01:38 > 0:01:44Our policy is one which is called by an Afrikaans word - apartheid,
0:01:44 > 0:01:49and I am afraid that has been misunderstood so often.
0:01:49 > 0:01:54It could just as easily and perhaps much better be described
0:01:54 > 0:01:57as a policy of good neighbourliness -
0:01:57 > 0:02:01accepting that there are differences between people.
0:02:01 > 0:02:07It was that racist policy which D'Oliveira's cricketing genius would fundamentally challenge.
0:02:21 > 0:02:26Basil D'Oliveira, now aged 72, has returned to Cape Town for the Cricket World Cup in South Africa.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29What's the score - I can't see that far.
0:02:29 > 0:02:33For the black man he is a hero to us.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37Today we can say we can be proud because of Basil D'Oliveira.
0:02:37 > 0:02:44- We are sitting with him watching the World Cup. - CROWD CHEERS
0:02:44 > 0:02:48Because his 158 against Australia changed the path of history.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53The end of a really superb innings from D'Oliveira.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57- As you walked back to the pavilion at the Oval...- YES! - ..that was what you were thinking?
0:02:57 > 0:03:00Yes. I'm in again, I'm here.
0:03:00 > 0:03:02I've got to be picked.
0:03:02 > 0:03:08That innings placed the English cricket selectors in the eye of a political storm.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11And when you come to select the side to go to South Africa will you allow
0:03:11 > 0:03:15yourself to be influenced by anything except purely cricketing considerations?
0:03:15 > 0:03:20No, we've got to sit down in about 45 minutes' time, in fact,
0:03:20 > 0:03:24and pick the best team in England which will beat South Africa.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27And then the plot began to unfold.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31I was set up - they had that golden opportunity.
0:03:31 > 0:03:36Only now is Basil D'Oliveira able to tell the full story of the scandal
0:03:36 > 0:03:40which led ultimately to the fall of apartheid - a plot that implicates
0:03:40 > 0:03:46the politicians and sports administrators alike in one of the great betrayals of modern sport.
0:03:51 > 0:03:55The story begins in the backstreets of Cape Town.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58And how did your cricket start?
0:03:58 > 0:04:01Like most people, you take a bat and a ball,
0:04:01 > 0:04:05you use sticks for wickets or a tin can and away you go, you play.
0:04:08 > 0:04:13Basil D'Oliveira was born in 1931, the son of a tailor, and he grew up
0:04:13 > 0:04:18in the Bokaap on the slopes of Signal Hill below Table Mountain.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21It is that one.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24I have come back.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31Everything evolved around the word called sport,
0:04:31 > 0:04:34soccer or cricket, those were the two main sports we thrived on.
0:04:37 > 0:04:42At 4 o'clock we all meet in the street and that is when the game starts taking place.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46And that wall, that is still there today, that was a practice wall
0:04:46 > 0:04:50for throwing balls and taking catches.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53- So this is the post you would play against?- Yes.
0:04:53 > 0:04:58- When you were a schoolboy? - I smashed everybody.
0:04:58 > 0:05:03At that stage he was already making a ransom, played street cricket,
0:05:03 > 0:05:08windows on both sides so you must always play straight.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12Six over this wire, that would be a six, that'll be a four.
0:05:12 > 0:05:16That one up there would be sixes - a big hit!
0:05:16 > 0:05:24People of all different races, different allegiances stayed in the same ground.
0:05:26 > 0:05:33In 1948 the National Party is elected in one of the most significant political developments
0:05:33 > 0:05:38in South African history because the National Party after that election
0:05:38 > 0:05:40which establishes apartheid.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45'48, '49, '50 had passed the major legislation which separates
0:05:45 > 0:05:49the entire population according to race and which basically takes away
0:05:49 > 0:05:55from all black and non-white people what few rights they previously enjoyed.
0:05:55 > 0:06:02Dr HF Verwoerd, Minister of Native Affairs, later Prime Minister, left nothing to chance.
0:06:02 > 0:06:09For the whites of South Africa, apartheid brought an affluent way of life and great prosperity.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12D'Oliveira himself was 17 when apartheid was introduced.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15Though light-skinned, his family was classified coloured
0:06:15 > 0:06:19and so the world into which he had been born was utterly changed.
0:06:19 > 0:06:25The white area is over there and the coloured area is over there.
0:06:25 > 0:06:26That's right.
0:06:26 > 0:06:32'And this racial classification even had an impact on the young D'Oliveira's cricket.'
0:06:32 > 0:06:38You shouldn't be on the street at night, playing cricket under the lamp post was not allowed by law.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40He went just whap - down,
0:06:40 > 0:06:46opened the Black Mariah, boom, and locked it up.
0:06:46 > 0:06:52For non-whites, everyday life was rigidly controlled by the new nationalist government.
0:06:52 > 0:06:57Because the colour of your skin is black, if you are over 16,
0:06:57 > 0:07:01you had to have a special identity card called a passport
0:07:01 > 0:07:06and if you didn't have it with you, you would be arrested.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10We were all petrified of them, the whole bloody lot, all of us.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13They were very aggressive people.
0:07:13 > 0:07:15In order to play cricket,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18I had to move from here.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20Let's walk around there and I will show you where.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22Over there, behind them.
0:07:24 > 0:07:28He said that's just not right.
0:07:28 > 0:07:34These people aren't better than us and I said, "Bugger them, we will get in there one day."
0:07:34 > 0:07:37And we did, in a big way.
0:07:38 > 0:07:44The powerful weapon D'Oliveira would use to bring about change was the cricket bat.
0:07:44 > 0:07:49In the 1950s, as a young man ambitious to become a top sportsman,
0:07:49 > 0:07:55he would run daily to the summit of Signal Hill overlooking Cape Town.
0:07:55 > 0:08:00- So this was freedom for you. - Yes absolutely, complete freedom, this was mine.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03This was where you dreamt your dreams.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06Yes, I will get there, I will get there.
0:08:06 > 0:08:11Apartheid meant organised sport was rigidly segregated,
0:08:11 > 0:08:14and not just between blacks and whites.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20In our sport, the Indians played separately,
0:08:20 > 0:08:22the Malays played separately,
0:08:22 > 0:08:26the Coloureds played separately and the Bantus played separately.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28We had our own social apartheid.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32The Muslims wanted nothing to do with the Coloureds and the Coloureds wanted nothing to do
0:08:32 > 0:08:39with the blacks, although we would say hello to one another, they had their sport and we had our sport.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42I loved it, I adored cricket.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46I would drive myself on to make certain we would have a game of cricket.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49Nothing was going to stop me from having a game of cricket.
0:08:49 > 0:08:54We played at Green Point, that was our home ground, but with no facilities at all.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56Nobody offered us anything here.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00It was a piece of ground with gravel, no grass at all, all stone.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04Used to come here on a Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon.
0:09:04 > 0:09:09Anything between 12 and 15 clubs played cricket at Green Point.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16- But this was THE ground? - The ground. This was the famous one.
0:09:16 > 0:09:21This is where Basil Wooton and I played and broke,
0:09:21 > 0:09:24at times, possibly every record that's been broken in the book.
0:09:27 > 0:09:34St Augustine's was a club for Christian Coloureds and D'Oliveira's father was captain.
0:09:34 > 0:09:39He taught me the fairness and honesty of the game,
0:09:39 > 0:09:43how I should play, how hard you should try, never give up.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45You are very gifted,
0:09:45 > 0:09:47please don't spoil it.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51He learned his cricket on rough dirt tracks.
0:09:51 > 0:09:57My father and I would cut out a pitch, and roll it, water it,
0:09:57 > 0:09:59you carry it
0:09:59 > 0:10:06and you get to where you are now and you drop it and then you have to roll it out.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10We get all the boulders, stones, then prove to me how good you are.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16Dangerous it might be, but you might get a game out of it.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28That's what we learnt on.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34You can see the obstacles
0:10:34 > 0:10:38that confronted this man and he still made it to the top.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43In 1956 the notorious treason trial began.
0:10:43 > 0:10:48Opponents of the apartheid regime were rounded up and prosecuted.
0:10:48 > 0:10:56It was four years before Nelson Mandela and 150 other dissidents were found not guilty.
0:11:00 > 0:11:05Whilst we were growing up in the cricketing fraternity, Basil was creating a name for himself
0:11:05 > 0:11:09but only the coloured newspapers would carry Basil's scores in other towns.
0:11:09 > 0:11:14Basil takes another seven wickets, Basil scores another five goals and so forth.
0:11:14 > 0:11:19Two or three uncles of mine have played against him and they said
0:11:19 > 0:11:23he was a genius, there has never been a non-white cricketer like him.
0:11:25 > 0:11:30I saw him only a few times, one was 1953 in the finals, magnificent,
0:11:30 > 0:11:35hard-hitting, they had to bend their hands, he hit the ball so hard.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40He was commanding with effortless superiority.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44He was the Bradman of non-white cricket in South Africa.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47He once scored a double century in only one hour.
0:11:47 > 0:11:5228 sixes and five fours or something, it is ridiculous.
0:11:52 > 0:11:56He was a run-making machine.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00In an eight-ball over he hit the chap for seven sixes and one four.
0:12:02 > 0:12:08D'Oliveira's exploits on the cricket field made him an inspiration to his community.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12And we can look at about 3,000 or 4,000 people at the match.
0:12:12 > 0:12:19Cricket was a social force - a social glue which gathered people together on a weekend.
0:12:19 > 0:12:24People would go all out, they would pack their picnic baskets, the women
0:12:24 > 0:12:27would come on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon with all the food
0:12:27 > 0:12:34and everything would be laid out. It wasn't just the game that counted, it was the social occasion,
0:12:34 > 0:12:39and of course cricket lasts all day, not like football,
0:12:39 > 0:12:45or rugby, where often after 90 minutes people go home. You have a long time to socialise.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48Here's the bowler coming in now.
0:12:50 > 0:12:52- Are you local?- Local, yes.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54What is your job in the team then?
0:12:54 > 0:12:58Batsman, number four.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00What was your score?
0:13:00 > 0:13:03- 101, not out.- A hundred man!
0:13:03 > 0:13:04That is good news.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06Easy, isn't it.
0:13:09 > 0:13:11- What is your highest score?- 250.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14- Sure, against who?- Yorkshire.
0:13:14 > 0:13:15And for the international?
0:13:15 > 0:13:18- 160.- Against what country?
0:13:18 > 0:13:21- Australia.- Sure.
0:13:21 > 0:13:26More than 50 years on, D'Oliveira remains a legend at St Augustine's.
0:13:26 > 0:13:28Good to see you, take care of yourself.
0:13:32 > 0:13:37Mr D'Oliveira, we would like a photo of you and us ladies,
0:13:37 > 0:13:39can we take one?
0:13:39 > 0:13:42Look, we all knew what the laws of the land were.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45On Sundays, the best of the black players would play against the best
0:13:45 > 0:13:51- of the white players, although it was illegal. But they nevertheless did it.- All the whites we played against.
0:13:51 > 0:13:59We would hide behind grounds to keep it away from the police, and we'd pray the police wouldn't stop it.
0:13:59 > 0:14:04These matches were stopped, they couldn't play against one another
0:14:04 > 0:14:10and I must say that our boys did well against the white clubs.
0:14:10 > 0:14:17- Were you ever allowed to play on the white ground?- Only when they invited us...and you had to be thankful.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20Small mercies, but you're thankful for it.
0:14:20 > 0:14:25This great cricketer left school at 16 to work in the printing trade.
0:14:25 > 0:14:31When I knew Basil, he was 18 years old, he was a Grade II machine minder.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34If you were a Grade I machine minder you had a white skin.
0:14:34 > 0:14:41Everybody loved him for what he was and he was so good as a cricketer, he was a natural.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44If Basil came to bat,
0:14:44 > 0:14:50we were all, how would I say... subdued,
0:14:50 > 0:14:53knowing here comes a man that can score runs.
0:14:53 > 0:14:58He'd take command of a situation, that was his determination.
0:14:58 > 0:15:00From the first ball,
0:15:00 > 0:15:05he could tear you apart, he could pierce the field,
0:15:05 > 0:15:08put the ball through the gaps.
0:15:08 > 0:15:15But while D'Oliveira was the most gifted cricketer of his generation the tragedy is that in his prime,
0:15:15 > 0:15:20his colour meant he could never be selected to play for his own country.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28Beautiful to watch him play, isn't it?
0:15:31 > 0:15:33Great shot. Great shot.
0:15:48 > 0:15:55D'Oliveira's sporting achievements embodied the hopes of a non-white majority in South Africa.
0:15:55 > 0:16:02My proudest moment would have been when I saw Basil come out with a cricket bat out of that pavilion
0:16:02 > 0:16:03at Newlands,
0:16:03 > 0:16:05which he deserved.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07The law, however, prohibited it.
0:16:07 > 0:16:12Instead of playing, he was only allowed to watch Test cricket at Newlands,
0:16:12 > 0:16:18- and even that from the Coloured enclosure.- That's class, man.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22We sat on the right-hand side between Z and Y.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26We could only sit there a little bit. That was known as the cage.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30- Why?- It was fenced off and we could only sit there.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35Make it look so easy, don't they?
0:16:35 > 0:16:41In that area everyone was anti-South Africa and pro any visiting teams.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45We supported any incoming teams, never South Africa.
0:16:45 > 0:16:53You needed to bring them out of that area. Now today you come and watch this. Look, magnificent.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14When they got him out, there was joy.
0:17:14 > 0:17:19- Well played! - APPLAUSE
0:17:23 > 0:17:27The fact is that D'Oliveira was a phenomenon during the 1950s,
0:17:27 > 0:17:31scoring over 80 centuries in so-called non-white cricket.
0:17:33 > 0:17:40In 1958 Basil was made captain of the first non-white South African cricket team.
0:17:40 > 0:17:45The white men still only believe that they played cricket, no black ever played cricket.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48He successfully led the tour to East Africa.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53His non-white team played three unofficial Tests.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56He was the captain of our side and we beat Kenya hands down here
0:17:56 > 0:18:00and then we went to Kenya and we beat them there too.
0:18:15 > 0:18:19During that period there were about eight or nine non-white cricketers
0:18:19 > 0:18:26who would have made the South African side on merit. Basil would have kept the game on level.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30He would have been greatly courageous
0:18:30 > 0:18:34because 15 years of his life was taken away
0:18:34 > 0:18:38because of the restrictions in this country.
0:18:38 > 0:18:44All I need is a chance, give them the chance and then we will work out who is good, bad and indifferent.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48I'm not saying we are the best or we should play for South Africa,
0:18:48 > 0:18:53instead of the whites, but put us together in the same arena and we will find out.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57In my book there is only one winner.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02I would put him on par with Graham Pollock,
0:19:02 > 0:19:06Barry Richards and himself as the three greatest batsmen we ever produced.
0:19:06 > 0:19:14While he was scoring centuries, militant opposition to the racist regime was fermenting.
0:19:14 > 0:19:19Now, D'Oliveira's ambition was to make cricket itself part of the political struggle.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25After he had a taste of international cricket, having played against the Kenyans,
0:19:25 > 0:19:29there were then plans to bring a West Indian side out.
0:19:29 > 0:19:35The audacious idea was to bring the best side in the world to South Africa to play the non-whites.
0:19:35 > 0:19:39We wanted to put our cricket on the map and then the world would know
0:19:39 > 0:19:43that there were other cricketers other than the white cricketers.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46That tour was cancelled and Basil wasn't happy because he wanted
0:19:46 > 0:19:49to test himself against the best and that was the catalyst for him
0:19:49 > 0:19:55- going to England because he realised there was no possibility for him to play international cricket.- In 1960,
0:19:55 > 0:19:56D'Oliveira's life changed.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59He married his childhood sweetheart Naomi,
0:19:59 > 0:20:03but already in his late twenties, he was frustrated by apartheid
0:20:03 > 0:20:09from realising his sporting potential and was forced to try and make a name for himself abroad.
0:20:09 > 0:20:15"Dear Mr Arlott, being so keen to play cricket in the Lancashire League
0:20:15 > 0:20:20"I cannot refrain from availing myself of your generosity."
0:20:22 > 0:20:27It was the great cricket commentator John Arlott who changed his life.
0:20:27 > 0:20:32There was a commentary on cricket on the radio and I would listen to it and this beautiful voice
0:20:32 > 0:20:39came across, a full-bodied voice and you could see it coming at you.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43You can't make 200 in an hour and take nine for two and not be either
0:20:43 > 0:20:45a good batsman or a good bowler.
0:20:45 > 0:20:50Arlott had women that didn't even know about cricket,
0:20:50 > 0:20:56they used to leave their pots and food to just listen to his voice.
0:20:56 > 0:21:02A convinced opponent of apartheid, Arlott was determined to help him.
0:21:02 > 0:21:08The consequences were to detonate the biggest controversy in cricket history.
0:21:10 > 0:21:15And the correspondence leading up to Dolly's immigration to England
0:21:15 > 0:21:18is now among the most treasured letters
0:21:18 > 0:21:24that survive in cricket written in that green ink. I saw them under the hammer at auction a few years ago.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28In his own country he couldn't play first-class cricket.
0:21:28 > 0:21:36He can prove himself as a top-class player, but just a few people like Alan Oakman, Peter Sainsbury
0:21:36 > 0:21:38and Jim Gray looked at him and said he was good.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42One of the white cricketers who played against D'Oliveira in Africa
0:21:42 > 0:21:46was opening bowler Jack Bannister, now a cricket writer.
0:21:46 > 0:21:51We had heard about this chap D'Oliveira but when he hit that second ball of mine for six
0:21:51 > 0:21:56over extra cover, I thought well, here we go, let's see what happens, and he was dazzling.
0:21:56 > 0:22:02Peter Walker just kept looking at me, raising his hands and saying what a genius.
0:22:02 > 0:22:04The figures were good.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08He had never had a chance in his own country, which was the desperate thing.
0:22:08 > 0:22:13And because in his letters he seemed such a terribly nice chap.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16They had to take it that he could play.
0:22:16 > 0:22:18It took two years.
0:22:18 > 0:22:24I think I owe everything I have to John Arlott, I think he started it all. He wrote to me one day.
0:22:24 > 0:22:29I was in Cape Town in February 1960 and there was a letter from him
0:22:29 > 0:22:33stating would I like to play in leagues as a professional.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37I have an offer for you to play as a professional in England this summer.
0:22:37 > 0:22:44At last, in 1960, Middleton, a Lancashire League club, had an unexpected vacancy
0:22:44 > 0:22:49for a professional at the princely sum of £450 for the season.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53This seems to me an opportunity you should seize -
0:22:53 > 0:22:57will you please cable me your decision at the earliest possible moment.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00The Middleton club have a meeting on Monday next.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04What was your reaction, Naomi, when you picked up that letter?
0:23:04 > 0:23:10I took it to Basil and I said, "It's all right, you can go - if it is a professional post in England,
0:23:10 > 0:23:12"it's all right."
0:23:12 > 0:23:15No money in the bank, no money in the pocket. Basil was married now.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19You went to this bar at the Grand Hotel
0:23:19 > 0:23:25in Cape Town and on that day in January 1960 this man gave you new hope.
0:23:25 > 0:23:30I would have taken him to England by rowing boat rather than see him miss this great opportunity.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32The voice of the man who made it possible for you to come to England.
0:23:32 > 0:23:39He has made the same 8,000-mile journey from Cape Town, yes, he is here today. Your friend Benny Bansda!
0:23:47 > 0:23:52Dear Mr Arlott, many many thanks for your letter received.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55He was looking downhearted, was he?
0:23:55 > 0:24:02Very. Basil was standing there with his hands holding his chin,
0:24:02 > 0:24:07telling me he didn't have £5 next to his name and wanted to call the deal off.
0:24:07 > 0:24:15- So what did you do?- I told Basil, you take a walk, go home, write a letter to the people concerned
0:24:15 > 0:24:18and leave the rest to me, and I will raise the money.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22In the end between the three of us, Bannister, Adam and myself,
0:24:22 > 0:24:26we decided to create a fundraising committee
0:24:26 > 0:24:30to raise funds to at least keep him there for six months.
0:24:30 > 0:24:36A lot of white and non-white cricketers helped me in the task and within a short period of time
0:24:36 > 0:24:43we managed to raise £600 for Basil to go overseas.
0:24:43 > 0:24:51Muslims, non-Muslims, white, black, yellow, all of them did their bit to see that Basil got overseas.
0:24:51 > 0:24:53Why did you want him to go so much?
0:24:53 > 0:24:56To open doors for the others.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58The rest was now up to him.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03But just as Basil's sporting career was taking off,
0:25:03 > 0:25:06the political opposition in South Africa was deepening.
0:25:06 > 0:25:14The police shot dead 69 people at Sharpville just days before D'Oliveira was to leave for England.
0:25:14 > 0:25:20It was a turning-point and led directly to the ANC declaration of the armed struggle.
0:25:20 > 0:25:26There are many people who feel that it is useless and futile for us
0:25:26 > 0:25:32to continue talking about peace and non-violence against the government
0:25:32 > 0:25:34whose reply is only savage attacks
0:25:34 > 0:25:37on an unarmed and defenceless people.
0:25:37 > 0:25:42The Arlott letters made clear that there was a political agenda right from the start.
0:25:42 > 0:25:48I think asking him over here might change the sporting and political face of South Africa
0:25:48 > 0:25:51which seems to me very worthwhile.
0:25:54 > 0:25:59At the airport when I garlanded you, I said one thing - "Basil - go and represent us."
0:25:59 > 0:26:04If you do well, we will do well.
0:26:04 > 0:26:10You have today become a legend in South African sport and we are proud of you, Basil.
0:26:10 > 0:26:12Thank you Benny Bansda.
0:26:14 > 0:26:17The job was for him to try and establish a name for himself
0:26:17 > 0:26:23in cricket and if he could do it then obviously someone else can do it.
0:26:23 > 0:26:25I said,
0:26:25 > 0:26:28"I've got to have a go."
0:26:28 > 0:26:3228-year-old Basil D'Oliveira left South Africa in late March 1960.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36On his shoulders he carried the hopes of the non-white community
0:26:36 > 0:26:42that he could challenge apartheid by playing cricket, but he was amazed by what he found in England.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46I have never seen a man so bewildered as Basil was that day.
0:26:46 > 0:26:51"Mr D'Oliveira", a white man calling me Mr D'Oliveira, what the hell was going on?!
0:26:51 > 0:26:56I took him along to see John Arlott and when we caught a train to Manchester I realised
0:26:56 > 0:27:02how utterly confusing it was for him to be one day away from the racial segregation laws of South Africa.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05I was frightened out of my bloody wits.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08Once we were on the train he said, "Where do I sit?"
0:27:08 > 0:27:09"Where do I eat?"
0:27:09 > 0:27:14The whole train was full of whites - whites everywhere,
0:27:14 > 0:27:17I said, "Christ Almighty, what's going on here?"
0:27:17 > 0:27:21And John asked me if I was alright. I said "fine".
0:27:21 > 0:27:24And we started getting correspondence from Basil.
0:27:24 > 0:27:29I said, "I don't know how to play on these pitches, they are wet, damp,
0:27:29 > 0:27:34"they have grass here. I don't know how to play on it."
0:27:37 > 0:27:38You must have been very depressed.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42- Of course I was.- The first thing he's missing, he wants to come home.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46It is bitterly cold, you can't hold the bat and you can't throw a ball,
0:27:46 > 0:27:52it is like your finger is going to snap, there was a lot of negatives coming from Basil all the time.
0:27:52 > 0:27:57And yet we were worried and said, "Please, God let him make it,
0:27:57 > 0:28:01"he will be the forerunner to what is going to happen in the future."
0:28:01 > 0:28:07Come on, nobody is going to help you, you've got to do it yourself, get up.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11Alone in a Lancashire mill town, playing as a professional on turf
0:28:11 > 0:28:16rather than matting wickets, it was some weeks before he made good.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19I got 70-odd, and from then on I never looked back,
0:28:19 > 0:28:22it just happened from there.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26Just a simple little word from Eric Price to say let it come.
0:28:35 > 0:28:43"Anyway, Mr Arlott, I am sailing for home today after a successful debut in the leagues."
0:28:43 > 0:28:50Returning to Cape Town after a first brilliant season in Lancashire, he was given a hero's welcome.
0:28:50 > 0:28:55Already D'Oliveira's cricket abroad was a thorn in the side of the apartheid regime.
0:28:55 > 0:29:04"The streets were lined with cheering crowds. Naturally the Boer - I hope you can pronounce
0:29:04 > 0:29:09"the Afrikaans word, Mr Arlott - were aghast that a darkie could get such an ovation,
0:29:09 > 0:29:15"and the opening created now for our coloured cricketers is all due to your efforts,
0:29:15 > 0:29:20"for which I and all South African non-white cricketers will always be grateful.
0:29:20 > 0:29:27"Could you please let me know when I will be allowed to play county cricket? I am interested."
0:29:27 > 0:29:31John Arlott regarded what he was able to do for Basil D'Oliveira
0:29:31 > 0:29:35as simply the greatest achievement of his life.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42D'Oliveira became a British citizen in 1964.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53And from then on, he established himself
0:29:53 > 0:29:59for the Worcestershire side and then finally with England in 1966 and it was great to see how well he did.
0:29:59 > 0:30:05He had been in England six years when he was selected to represent his adopted country.
0:30:05 > 0:30:11I tell you, you could cry, it was an achievement.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14Not being selected in your own country
0:30:14 > 0:30:19and going to play for another country at his age and still make the English team,
0:30:19 > 0:30:25it was the greatest thing. It was a great moment in our lives. It gave us motivation.
0:30:25 > 0:30:30Even thinking about it now that I have been selected and played
0:30:30 > 0:30:36- for England, it just seems like a dream to me.- If Basil were to divulge at that time his real age,
0:30:36 > 0:30:40he would not have played. You work out when he did play for England.
0:30:40 > 0:30:45Though D'Oliveira told the selectors that he was 31,
0:30:45 > 0:30:50he was in fact 34, an age when most sportsmen have already retired.
0:30:55 > 0:31:01His England debut was made against the mighty West Indians. It was at Lord's, the home of cricket.
0:31:01 > 0:31:09And I'm on the balcony. I had my England sweater on and I stood there and looked out and thought,
0:31:09 > 0:31:11"Jesus,
0:31:11 > 0:31:14"amazing, I have done it. I have done it."
0:31:20 > 0:31:28I had a little twinkle in my eye and I felt very sad and just stood there as I thought of my own people...
0:31:28 > 0:31:31people on top of that hill, my friends, my family,
0:31:31 > 0:31:37and the national government - that they gotta go.
0:31:37 > 0:31:42You cannot get rid of me now. I am IN!
0:31:42 > 0:31:46It was like putting the pie in the face of those that ruled.
0:31:48 > 0:31:50They rejected the man,
0:31:50 > 0:31:58they rejected all non-white sportsmen and here he came back and he proved to them -
0:31:58 > 0:32:04I can represent a country, and I am representing England.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08That is not bad, that mean something.
0:32:08 > 0:32:14Unluckily run out for 27 in his first innings, he was nevertheless an immediate success.
0:32:14 > 0:32:21In his second match he had four massive sixes off the formidable West Indian fast bowling attack.
0:32:21 > 0:32:23He was a very attacking player.
0:32:23 > 0:32:25I think he is the only player in the world
0:32:25 > 0:32:27that has hit me for six.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32How did you feel?
0:32:32 > 0:32:35I was thinking, "Are you crazy?!"
0:32:35 > 0:32:38He said if you bowl me another one I'll hit you again!
0:32:38 > 0:32:42But in the words of CLR James, Basil D'Oliveira
0:32:42 > 0:32:48destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the West Indian fast bowlers.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52I don't know what happened but I know went over long-on,
0:32:52 > 0:32:56and that was a big round and that is not funny!
0:32:56 > 0:32:59Up to now he hasn't apologised.
0:32:59 > 0:33:03No...! My most sincere apologies!
0:33:06 > 0:33:11We were imagining all this, because I never saw a single innings of his since he went to England.
0:33:11 > 0:33:18- How did you feel when he got his 88? - I thought, "He is not only my schoolfriend..."
0:33:18 > 0:33:26- His success was our success! - It meant we are capable of going to the top.
0:33:26 > 0:33:31That winter he was included in the MCC tour of the West Indies.
0:33:31 > 0:33:33England needing one run for victory.
0:33:35 > 0:33:39Gibbs comes in, bowls to D'Oliveira and he's played around the corner.
0:33:39 > 0:33:44England have won a memorable victory!
0:33:44 > 0:33:49A wonderful victory by seven wickets and probably two balls to go.
0:33:49 > 0:33:51Just wondering, Basil,
0:33:51 > 0:33:59what is going to happen in the possible event of your being selected for the MCC tour
0:33:59 > 0:34:02of South Africa? This is something you must have thought about,
0:34:02 > 0:34:06although obviously you wouldn't plan for because you can only take life as it comes.
0:34:06 > 0:34:11I think at this stage I would prefer to take life as it comes.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15If it comes about that I am still playing at that time,
0:34:15 > 0:34:20and invited to join the side, I think I will then make a decision.
0:34:20 > 0:34:22What it will be I don't know.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25For D'Oliveira to play Test cricket
0:34:25 > 0:34:31in the country of his birth would be the culmination of his boyhood dream.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35For the MCC committee at Lord's, however, that question
0:34:35 > 0:34:38of whether it was possible to select D'Oliveira,
0:34:38 > 0:34:41an Englishman seen in South Africa as a Coloured,
0:34:42 > 0:34:47for the forthcoming 1968 tour of South Africa was a time bomb waiting to explode.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51It's important to remember that the D'Oliveira affair unfolds against
0:34:51 > 0:34:57a background of unprecedented global political protest.
0:34:57 > 0:35:03The culture of protest had spread in 1968 to every country in the world
0:35:03 > 0:35:05and we have to remember earlier in 1968,
0:35:05 > 0:35:12in the US, you see the assassination of Martin Luther King and huge, violent insurrections
0:35:12 > 0:35:17in nearly all the black ghettos in the US, violently suppressed by the army.
0:35:17 > 0:35:22You had the events in May of Paris '68. The government was nearly overthrown.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30In August, you had the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
0:35:30 > 0:35:35Whether it was in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka,
0:35:35 > 0:35:39Australia, and of course South Africa itself,
0:35:39 > 0:35:43this was a year of huge political ferment - it was a year
0:35:43 > 0:35:49in which young people of all kinds were out in the streets protesting over a wide number of issues.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02And the D'Oliveira affair is, in a sense, the ripple
0:36:02 > 0:36:06of that global tide of protest felt in the backwater of cricket.
0:36:08 > 0:36:14Sport was so dear to white South Africa and for black people that didn't have the vote it was actually
0:36:14 > 0:36:21a very important tool to lobby the outside world not to play against white South Africa,
0:36:21 > 0:36:25and that played a major role in the demise of apartheid.
0:36:25 > 0:36:32We whites in this country have a right to maintain our white identity under all circumstances.
0:36:32 > 0:36:37The South African Prime Minister in 1968 was John Forster.
0:36:37 > 0:36:43We have not only said that we have a right to maintain our white identity.
0:36:43 > 0:36:50Under pressure he would take as aggressive a posture as necessary to maintain the status quo.
0:36:52 > 0:36:57What you have to understand about Forster is that the one thing he couldn't accept
0:36:57 > 0:37:02was the idea of Basil D'Oliveira coming over as a South African-born coloured as part of an England team.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07This would not be accepted by his party.
0:37:07 > 0:37:14He tried to ensure that D'Oliveira wasn't selected for the England team to tour South Africa,
0:37:14 > 0:37:19but without stating publicly that D'Oliveira was not allowed.
0:37:19 > 0:37:23We also say to the world, and it is necessary
0:37:23 > 0:37:28at this stage to say it, that as far as South Africa is concerned,
0:37:28 > 0:37:33we won't be governed from anywhere outside South Africa.
0:37:33 > 0:37:35CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:37:35 > 0:37:39The racism in South African cricket, far from being challenged,
0:37:39 > 0:37:43had actually been accepted in white cricketing countries for a century.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47South Africa played international cricket on its own terms.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50South Africa said it would only played white countries
0:37:50 > 0:37:55and it played countries it had historically played with - New Zealand, England and Australia.
0:37:55 > 0:38:02At no time during all those decades did anyone from the MCC or the ICC
0:38:02 > 0:38:04breathe the slightest objection
0:38:04 > 0:38:11to South Africa's policy of refusing to play anyone but white nations.
0:38:11 > 0:38:16The question is - would the English establishment which ran English cricket through the MCC from Lord's
0:38:16 > 0:38:20now begin to plot with the South African authorities in an attempt
0:38:20 > 0:38:25to save them from the embarrassment of D'Oliveira's presence in a touring team?
0:38:33 > 0:38:39The MCC's role was not very glorious, it saw South Africa as its old friends
0:38:39 > 0:38:43and saw no reason to exclude them.
0:38:43 > 0:38:49We think that playing cricket can do nothing but good.
0:38:49 > 0:38:54As far as the MCC was concerned South Africa was part of their cosy club world.
0:38:54 > 0:39:01It is wrong to isolate South Africa, whose cricketers we all know
0:39:01 > 0:39:09and respect, and they are very fine cricketers indeed, because of their government's policy.
0:39:09 > 0:39:14It is not the Cricket Association policy - it is the government policy and they can do nothing about it.
0:39:14 > 0:39:20With D'Oliveira, South Africa was presented with the problem of playing against a non-white cricketer
0:39:20 > 0:39:25playing for one of his traditional countries. It objected to that and that in a way,
0:39:25 > 0:39:31brought home to England what the problem of playing cricket with South Africa was.
0:39:31 > 0:39:36Which it hadn't crystallised to that extent. It lead to the demonstrations and the protests and so on.
0:39:36 > 0:39:40This was the late '60s, a time of a wakening.
0:39:42 > 0:39:49The outgoing president of the MCC was Sir Alex Douglas-Home, former prime minister.
0:39:49 > 0:39:55Home spoke to D'Oliveira about the prospect of his being selected for the South African tour.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59I saw him via Colin Cowdrey.
0:39:59 > 0:40:05Colin said, "I think you ought to go and see him - this is a huge political issue.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08"It's not cricket any longer."
0:40:08 > 0:40:13He said, "Basil, don't ever come off that cricket field."
0:40:13 > 0:40:17- He was saying, don't get involved in politics.- Yes because...
0:40:17 > 0:40:21You haven't got enough time. To play the game is hard enough.
0:40:21 > 0:40:26So D'Oliveira, although the focus of attention, resolved to say nothing to the press in 1968
0:40:26 > 0:40:31about his possible inclusion in the side to tour South Africa.
0:40:31 > 0:40:36All I've got is that cricket bat, I've got nothing else.
0:40:36 > 0:40:41I have nothing else, I have no position, no money, I'm with no-one,
0:40:41 > 0:40:44I've only got that cricket bat.
0:40:44 > 0:40:48Australia was in England during the summer of 1968.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52When the side to tour South Africa was announced in the autumn,
0:40:52 > 0:40:56D'Oliveira was determined he would be in it.
0:40:56 > 0:40:59So I got 80 against the Aussies...
0:40:59 > 0:41:04COMMENTATOR: 'D'Oliveira, calm judgment and controlled aggression.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08'It seemed Pocock might stay with him while he got 100.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11'But Gleeson killed that thought.'
0:41:11 > 0:41:14I got to 87, and I played bloody well!
0:41:14 > 0:41:18Though he was one of the few Englishmen to score runs,
0:41:18 > 0:41:23D'Oliveira was inexplicably, it seemed, dropped by the selectors.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26Do you remember why you decided to drop him?
0:41:26 > 0:41:29Specifically, no.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32Specifically, no.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35- But there was this kind of background of...- No.
0:41:35 > 0:41:39I would refute that absolutely and totally.
0:41:39 > 0:41:44If there has been any implication that people like Alec Bedser,
0:41:44 > 0:41:49Don Kenyon, Les Ames... You know, apart from the toffee-nosed lot...
0:41:49 > 0:41:54..had any motive other than picking a cricket team for England,
0:41:54 > 0:41:58then, as far as I'm concerned, forget it.
0:41:58 > 0:42:03It was a lousy three months for me, and for the other selectors.
0:42:03 > 0:42:08All sorts of motives were implied.
0:42:08 > 0:42:12And they were absolutely, totally wide of the mark.
0:42:12 > 0:42:17D'Oliveira, no longer in the England team, returned to Worcester,
0:42:17 > 0:42:22his county, and, as a bowler, topped the county averages.
0:42:22 > 0:42:26But behind the scenes, the South African government
0:42:26 > 0:42:31was plotting against him, as can now be revealed.
0:42:31 > 0:42:36There was collaboration between the South African Cricket Association
0:42:36 > 0:42:40and Vorster, to try and prevent D'Oliveira's selection.
0:42:40 > 0:42:45D'Oliveira had at this point been dropped from the England team,
0:42:45 > 0:42:50and the South Africans wanted to keep it that way.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54In July, the attempt to bribe D'Oliveira was made,
0:42:54 > 0:42:57to make himself unavailable.
0:42:57 > 0:43:02D'Oliveira now received a call from a South African.
0:43:03 > 0:43:07- Somebody offered you money not to go, didn't they?- Yes.
0:43:07 > 0:43:11- Tiny Westhuizen.- That was cooked up in Vorster's office.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15He said, "You haven't played all that well this season.
0:43:15 > 0:43:19"I see you're keen to coach.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22"Maybe we could help."
0:43:22 > 0:43:26The offer would be for D'Oliveira to come and coach in South Africa...
0:43:26 > 0:43:31I said, "What do you mean, 'Maybe you can help?'"
0:43:31 > 0:43:35He says, "We can produce the money to pay for you,
0:43:35 > 0:43:39"your wife, your kids, to live in South Africa.
0:43:39 > 0:43:43"Flat, house, the whole caboodle is yours.
0:43:43 > 0:43:48"It looks as if you're not going to play for England again.
0:43:48 > 0:43:52"Here, you've got a golden opportunity."
0:43:52 > 0:43:55I said, "I've got to think about it."
0:43:55 > 0:43:58He said, "Well, we'll offer you 50,000 quid."
0:43:58 > 0:44:03The condition was that I should make myself unavailable for England.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07- What did you say? - I said, "I can't do that."
0:44:07 > 0:44:10He said, "You've got nothing else!
0:44:10 > 0:44:14They didn't realise what I was fighting, what I was after.
0:44:14 > 0:44:16I had to get the thing back.
0:44:16 > 0:44:21I want to be picked, I want to play for England, to go to South Africa.
0:44:21 > 0:44:27Time was running out, as the last Test match of the summer approached.
0:44:27 > 0:44:30- JOHN ARLOTT:- 'High summer came to the cricketers
0:44:30 > 0:44:33'for the Fifth Test at the Oval.'
0:44:33 > 0:44:36At the 11th hour, Basil was picked.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39It gave him the chance he needed.
0:44:40 > 0:44:45The story is that I was picked for a Test with Australia at the Oval.
0:44:45 > 0:44:49'Lawry lost the toss, and England batted on an amiable pitch.'
0:44:51 > 0:44:55And I pulled out 24 hours, 48 hours before.
0:44:55 > 0:44:59The next thing I heard, Bas had been picked in my place.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03I thought, "I'm an opening batsman, he's a number five,
0:45:03 > 0:45:07"and a seam bowler - interesting selection!"
0:45:07 > 0:45:11He was a surprise choice, some say a provocative choice -
0:45:11 > 0:45:13maybe we'll never know.
0:45:13 > 0:45:18But if he'd not been chosen, there wouldn't have been howls of protest.
0:45:18 > 0:45:23'Milburn announced himself thunderously...'
0:45:23 > 0:45:26Immediately after this match,
0:45:26 > 0:45:30the selectors would pick the team to tour South Africa.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34John Edrich had scored 164. That was the platform
0:45:34 > 0:45:38for the big England total that was necessary.
0:45:38 > 0:45:43They could have fallen away, then, but Dolly came in about number six.
0:45:43 > 0:45:49'As Thursday had been Edrich's day, so Friday was D'Oliveira's.
0:45:49 > 0:45:53'He lifted England's scoring rate healthily and steadily
0:45:53 > 0:45:57'with his own particular range of strokes.'
0:45:57 > 0:45:59APPLAUSE
0:45:59 > 0:46:05Basil D'Oliveira's innings, it was a typical Dolly performance.
0:46:11 > 0:46:15- RICHIE BENAUD:- 'There it is. Must be. It's a 100 to D'Oliveira!'
0:46:15 > 0:46:20He'd play to go to South Africa with his life, Basil, no doubt about that.
0:46:20 > 0:46:25He's want to go back and show them, that's what he'd be playing for.
0:46:25 > 0:46:30That's probably why he did so well in that match.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33"This is my last chance to make it onto that tour."
0:46:33 > 0:46:37'A good stroke, and it's four runs...'
0:46:37 > 0:46:41We said to ourselves, "That's put the cat amongst the pigeons."
0:46:41 > 0:46:45'And that's a fine shot.'
0:46:45 > 0:46:48I felt that no-one could stop me on that day.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52I'm not a big-head, but nothing was going to stop me.
0:46:52 > 0:46:57'Wickets fell at the other end, but D'Oliveira got enough of the bowling
0:46:57 > 0:47:01'to play an innings of 158 before a full Oval ground.'
0:47:01 > 0:47:05The crowd at the Oval, they sensed it, they felt it.
0:47:08 > 0:47:10'What a good shot!'
0:47:10 > 0:47:16It was his chance to prove that he was one of the great all-rounders.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22Basil was a good player, he really was.
0:47:22 > 0:47:27He had a very short backlift, very powerful forearms.
0:47:27 > 0:47:30'That's a lovely shot, beautiful stroke.'
0:47:30 > 0:47:33If you over-pitched it, as a spinner,
0:47:33 > 0:47:37he'd just knock it back over your head, boom, like that - six.
0:47:37 > 0:47:40Short-arm jab.
0:47:40 > 0:47:45'That's a fine square drive on the off side. It's going to be cut off.
0:47:45 > 0:47:47'Two runs for D'Oliveira.'
0:47:47 > 0:47:52He bowled the little dobblers to get a key wicket,
0:47:52 > 0:47:55or... OUTBREAK OF APPLAUSE
0:47:55 > 0:47:58he would play a key innings for you.
0:47:58 > 0:48:02If ever there was a key innings, this was the one.
0:48:02 > 0:48:04He was a natural cricketer.
0:48:04 > 0:48:09You'll never see anyone quite like Dolly
0:48:09 > 0:48:12in the manner of his stroke-play.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16And England took some sort of hold on the game.
0:48:16 > 0:48:20'..really superb innings from Basil D'Oliveira.
0:48:20 > 0:48:25'I can't recall ever seeing him play better than this.
0:48:25 > 0:48:29'Great value for this big crowd at the Oval today.'
0:48:31 > 0:48:36- Has it bought him a ticket to South Africa?.- Without doubt.
0:48:40 > 0:48:44We were overjoyed, and we were all waiting
0:48:44 > 0:48:50with our fingers like this, hoping they'd let him in to the country.
0:48:50 > 0:48:54We could see one of our guys playing for England against South Africa.
0:48:54 > 0:48:59- RICHIE BENAUD:- 'And the captain avidly watching the play...'
0:48:59 > 0:49:04I think it would have been a huge test for many, many people.
0:49:04 > 0:49:09If I'm picked, the South African government will get the humiliation
0:49:09 > 0:49:12of having to back me...
0:49:12 > 0:49:17And that was the problem the MCC were trying to avoid.
0:49:17 > 0:49:21'It's been a beautiful innings from Basil D'Oliveira.
0:49:21 > 0:49:26'He's played some glorious strokes, all round the wicket.'
0:49:26 > 0:49:31When he scored 150, we thought, "Now, they can't leave him out."
0:49:31 > 0:49:37Everybody wanted him to come. A lot of whites also wanted him to come.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41'..bowl to D'Oliveira... And it's his 150!
0:49:41 > 0:49:44- APPLAUSE - '150 to D'Oliveira -
0:49:44 > 0:49:49'his highest ever Test score - a wonderful innings, there's no doubt.
0:49:49 > 0:49:54'Chosen at the last moment. Prideaux couldn't play,
0:49:54 > 0:49:59'in came D'Oliveira and he's played this magnificent innings.'
0:49:59 > 0:50:04It was a political thing. Now the government must open their ears
0:50:04 > 0:50:07and their eyes and they must look at their laws now.
0:50:07 > 0:50:11Here is a coloured man that could not play for South Africa
0:50:11 > 0:50:15who has gone to England, qualified by residence, came back here
0:50:15 > 0:50:18to play for England against the guys.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22We are now going to support England, and pray that Basil will perform.
0:50:22 > 0:50:27Everybody was waiting for that moment to happen.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30- RICHIE BENAUD: - He's played so well today,
0:50:30 > 0:50:34and written himself a ticket for South Africa in so doing.
0:50:34 > 0:50:39One cannot overestimate how significant this innings was
0:50:39 > 0:50:43in the bigger world outside cricket.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49'Lawry, the left-hander...
0:50:51 > 0:50:55'A good single, Illingworth having to hurry...'
0:50:55 > 0:51:00Dolly must have thought that 158 had got him onto the aircraft
0:51:00 > 0:51:04to tour the land of his upbringing, which would have been
0:51:04 > 0:51:08extremely emotional for him and for other people.
0:51:12 > 0:51:15- Catch it!- 'It's well caught.
0:51:15 > 0:51:20'A gentle sweep played by D'Oliveira and the ninth England wicket down.
0:51:20 > 0:51:25'D'Oliveira out, caught Inverarity, bowled Mallett, for 158.'
0:51:25 > 0:51:30- JIM LAKER:- 'The end of a superb innings from Basil D'Oliveira.
0:51:30 > 0:51:34'And this huge crowd at the Oval all now standing up,
0:51:34 > 0:51:38'applauding him all the way back.'
0:51:38 > 0:51:42- As you walked back to the pavilion at the Oval...- Yes!
0:51:42 > 0:51:47- That's what you were thinking? - Yes! I'm in again. I'm here.
0:51:47 > 0:51:52I walked off, the whole ground stood up, the whole ground stood up.
0:51:52 > 0:51:56- JIM LAKER:- 'There can be no prouder man than Basil D'Oliveira...'
0:51:56 > 0:51:59I've done it now.
0:51:59 > 0:52:04I've done it now. It's all come right.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10It's all come right. I was in the shower and the door opened.
0:52:10 > 0:52:15Colin came in and said, "Well played, really well played.
0:52:15 > 0:52:21"You looked good. The side's going to be announced on Tuesday.
0:52:23 > 0:52:28"You're going to be in it. I'm going to back you."
0:52:28 > 0:52:32I said, "OK, fine." He says, "Can you imagine what's going to happen?"
0:52:32 > 0:52:37I says, "No, I can't, and neither can you, because you don't know.
0:52:37 > 0:52:42"But I'll tell you one thing, I'm not scared of the situation.
0:52:42 > 0:52:47"I'll handle my corner, you handle yours, and we'll see it through."
0:52:47 > 0:52:50APPLAUSE
0:52:50 > 0:52:54The match itself would have an extraordinary finale.
0:52:54 > 0:52:59I was here in 1968, and it's still, 35 years on,
0:52:59 > 0:53:04in the top five of my most memorable matches, for its own sake,
0:53:04 > 0:53:08quite apart from the political aftermath,
0:53:08 > 0:53:12which probably took away from what was a sensational final day.
0:53:12 > 0:53:17- JOHN ARLOTT:- 'A couple of minutes before lunch, at 86-5,
0:53:17 > 0:53:22'the players went off for the first drop of a thunder shower which,
0:53:22 > 0:53:27'in less than an hour, reduced the Oval to a series of minor lakes.'
0:53:27 > 0:53:32All hope was lost. The Australian journalists had filed their stories
0:53:32 > 0:53:37that they'd won the series, since this was going to be a draw.
0:53:37 > 0:53:41They were saying, "Send her down, Hughie," as it poured down.
0:53:41 > 0:53:46Then the public went out and helped to make it just about playable.
0:53:46 > 0:53:51'May we wonder whether they would have found quite so many volunteers
0:53:51 > 0:53:55'if the positions of England and Australia had been reversed?
0:53:55 > 0:53:59'Play could start at 4.45, with an hour and a quarter left.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03'Australia had no chance of scoring 266.
0:54:03 > 0:54:05'England wanted five more wickets.
0:54:05 > 0:54:10'It only seemed possible if the drying wicket misbehaved.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13'It never did - it was too wet.
0:54:13 > 0:54:18'Cowdrey set an unheard-of field, and shuffled through his bowlers
0:54:18 > 0:54:23'hopefully, but with no advantage for 40 minutes...'
0:54:23 > 0:54:27This was to be a great day for English cricket,
0:54:27 > 0:54:31and D'Oliveira was to play a decisive role.
0:54:31 > 0:54:35'Then D'Oliveira, his fifth bowler since play re-started,
0:54:35 > 0:54:40'floated one past Jarman, and clipped away the off bail...'
0:54:40 > 0:54:43CHEERING 'He's out!
0:54:43 > 0:54:47'There's the first wicket. D'Oliveira has got it...'
0:54:47 > 0:54:52He didn't get a lot of wickets, but he got some key wickets.
0:54:52 > 0:54:56And that was the flood gates opening up.
0:54:56 > 0:54:59Cowdrey brought Underwood on at this end,
0:54:59 > 0:55:02and he finished with seven for.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04'He's out, caught...!
0:55:06 > 0:55:08'Ooh, he's out, is he? Caught!'
0:55:08 > 0:55:12It was a shaker. We were shaking with excitement.
0:55:12 > 0:55:16- HENRY BLOFELD:- 'He's got him! Off stump knocked out of the ground.
0:55:16 > 0:55:20'Australia are 120-9, with just one wicket to go,
0:55:20 > 0:55:23'and ten minutes and a half left.'
0:55:23 > 0:55:28Getting Inverarity in the last over of the day.
0:55:29 > 0:55:33- Owzat!- 'They appeal, and he's out!
0:55:33 > 0:55:37'England have won! And the series is drawn!
0:55:39 > 0:55:45'There's Colin Cowdrey, the happiest man on the field...'
0:55:48 > 0:55:52- JOHN ARLOTT:- 'So, the 1968 series, a series all too full of rain
0:55:52 > 0:55:55'and frustration, had ended in sunshine,
0:55:55 > 0:55:59'and on a high-dramatic note.'
0:55:59 > 0:56:02HENRY BLOFELD: Here we have the England captain.
0:56:02 > 0:56:06What a marvellous finish it was, Colin...
0:56:06 > 0:56:08I've done it. I've got to be picked.
0:56:08 > 0:56:13How the hell can they not pick me as one of the 16?
0:56:13 > 0:56:17I've done enough, and I will do some more.
0:56:17 > 0:56:21When you pick the side, will you allow yourself to be influenced
0:56:21 > 0:56:24- by anything other than cricket? - Er, no.
0:56:24 > 0:56:29We've got to sit down in about 45 minutes' time in fact
0:56:29 > 0:56:34and pick the best team in England which will beat South Africa.
0:56:34 > 0:56:38And so, highly politically charged thing is left to the selectors.
0:56:38 > 0:56:42- He was worried about the politics. - Yes, very much.
0:56:42 > 0:56:44But he told me he'd back me.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48He did tell me emphatically he was going to back me.
0:56:48 > 0:56:52- Do you think he really did? - I think he would have done, yes.
0:56:52 > 0:56:56FRANK BOUGH: 'With the selectors in session, D'Oliveira waits in silence
0:56:56 > 0:57:00'to hear whether he will achieve his ambition
0:57:00 > 0:57:04'of playing Test cricket in the country of his birth.'
0:57:04 > 0:57:10And then came the bombshell. The MCC committee dropped him.
0:57:10 > 0:57:15They didn't have to bring him back for the Oval Test.
0:57:15 > 0:57:19He's scored 158, and they haven't picked him to tour South Africa!
0:57:19 > 0:57:24We as coloured cricketers accused the English authorities
0:57:24 > 0:57:28of bowing down to our government here.
0:57:28 > 0:57:33- Why do you think you weren't selected?- I think I was set up.
0:57:33 > 0:57:38They hadn't a lot to do. I'd given it all to them.
0:57:38 > 0:57:43It was on a plate. I was set up. They had a golden opportunity.
0:57:43 > 0:57:48From documents in Prime Minister Vorster's archive in South Africa,
0:57:48 > 0:57:53which have now been opened, we can reconstruct what actually happened
0:57:53 > 0:57:55during 1968
0:57:58 > 0:58:02The powers that be at the MCC had known for some time
0:58:02 > 0:58:08that to choose D'Oliveira would mean the cancellation of the tour
0:58:08 > 0:58:13and would open the Pandora's box about the general question
0:58:13 > 0:58:16of English cricket's relationship with South Africa.
0:58:16 > 0:58:20Had the selectors been told that if he was selected,
0:58:20 > 0:58:24the tour would go up in smoke? That's the smoking gun thing.
0:58:24 > 0:58:28Unknown to anybody at the time, the ruling elite at the MCC
0:58:28 > 0:58:33had been in contact all year with the apartheid authorities
0:58:33 > 0:58:37in what amounted to a conspiracy to allow the tour to go ahead.
0:58:37 > 0:58:42Alec Douglas-Home and Colin Cowdrey were at the centre of it.
0:58:42 > 0:58:47Douglas-Home told Cowdrey - this is in the summer of 1968 -
0:58:47 > 0:58:52"We wanted relationships kept as warm as possible in the current climate."
0:58:52 > 0:58:57He didn't want to put unnecessary pressure on the Vorster government.
0:58:57 > 0:59:01The way to overcome the difficulties presented by apartheid
0:59:01 > 0:59:04and the South African policies
0:59:04 > 0:59:08is to have as many contacts as possible.
0:59:08 > 0:59:13The MCC wrote to the SA Cricket Association at the start of 1968,
0:59:13 > 0:59:19saying, "Are we free to select who we want to select on this tour?"
0:59:19 > 0:59:24We sent a warning that we expected the South African government
0:59:24 > 0:59:27to accept the tour in its entirety.
0:59:27 > 0:59:31Sir Alec Douglas-Home had seen Vorster in Cape Town,
0:59:31 > 0:59:35and Vorster had told him,
0:59:35 > 0:59:40"If you ask me to guarantee I'll let D'Oliveira in, my answer must be no."
0:59:40 > 0:59:45Douglas-Home goes back to the MCC committee personally,
0:59:45 > 0:59:49and says, "Look, don't ask for guarantees now."
0:59:49 > 0:59:53Douglas-Home had ulterior motives for wanting the MCC
0:59:53 > 0:59:57to be compliant with the South Africans.
0:59:57 > 1:00:00His was a wider, political agenda.
1:00:00 > 1:00:05He was trying to get South Africa on board for dealing with Smith
1:00:05 > 1:00:08and UDI, in Rhodesia.
1:00:08 > 1:00:13He felt that if you pressed Vorster into a corner on the sports issue,
1:00:13 > 1:00:17he'd be more embattled, and less willing to help the British
1:00:17 > 1:00:20in dealing with the Rhodesian problem.
1:00:20 > 1:00:25There is further incriminating evidence that the MCC knew full well
1:00:25 > 1:00:30that D'Oliveira would never be acceptable to the South Africans.
1:00:30 > 1:00:35Vorster sends a direct message to the MCC via Lord Cobham, to the effect,
1:00:35 > 1:00:38"Don't even think about it."
1:00:38 > 1:00:42Select D'Oliveira, and we won't let him in - the tour will be cancelled.
1:00:42 > 1:00:46Cobham's message was fatal for D'Oliveira's chances.
1:00:46 > 1:00:50The information is handed to the trio who control the MCC -
1:00:50 > 1:00:53to Griffith, secretary of the MCC,
1:00:53 > 1:00:56to Gilligan, who's president,
1:00:56 > 1:00:59and to Gubby Allen, who's treasurer,
1:00:59 > 1:01:03that D'Oliveira will never be acceptable to Vorster.
1:01:03 > 1:01:08But were the selectors themselves told about Cobham's message?
1:01:08 > 1:01:12- His view was never passed on to the selectors?- No.
1:01:12 > 1:01:17You never heard about it until after...
1:01:17 > 1:01:19That's right. Mmm.
1:01:19 > 1:01:24- which minutes have gone missing?- The minutes of the selection committee.
1:01:24 > 1:01:29- What's happened to them?- They're not available in the Lord's archive.
1:01:29 > 1:01:34But we do know that the meeting went on for about five hours.
1:01:34 > 1:01:38There was a chairman and three other selectors, and the captain.
1:01:38 > 1:01:44In fact, there were at least ten people in that room at Lord's.
1:01:44 > 1:01:47The MCC always provided observers,
1:01:47 > 1:01:52to make sure that touring teams would be acceptable to their hosts.
1:01:52 > 1:01:57- Who were the MCC observers?- On that occasion - it varied every year -
1:01:57 > 1:02:02Gubby Allen and Arthur Gilligan, both former England captains.
1:02:02 > 1:02:05Clearly, Gubby Allen and Gilligan knew
1:02:05 > 1:02:09that if D'Oliveira was selected, there would be no tour,
1:02:09 > 1:02:12that Vorster would not accept him.
1:02:12 > 1:02:17How they conveyed this, or didn't convey it to the selectors
1:02:17 > 1:02:21is one of the things that we don't know.
1:02:21 > 1:02:25Though we may not know what was said at the meeting,
1:02:25 > 1:02:29something can be discerned from the backgrounds of those present.
1:02:29 > 1:02:32Gilligan, who was the president in 1968,
1:02:32 > 1:02:38back in the 1930s had been a member of the British Union of Fascists,
1:02:38 > 1:02:42and had contributed an article for their magazine
1:02:42 > 1:02:46about the role of cricket tours, saying something to the effect that
1:02:46 > 1:02:51cricket tours strengthened the bonds of kinship, by which he meant,
1:02:51 > 1:02:55as the Fascists did, the bonds of racial kinship
1:02:55 > 1:02:58among white people in the Empire.
1:02:58 > 1:03:03They've always denied that there was a political discussion.
1:03:03 > 1:03:06There were no real views as such.
1:03:06 > 1:03:11For weeks, we'd been having messages from all sorts of sources
1:03:11 > 1:03:16about whether it would be a good idea, and what might happen.
1:03:16 > 1:03:20And the messages coming from Pretoria were never louder
1:03:20 > 1:03:24than during that summer's Lord's Test against the Australians.
1:03:24 > 1:03:28The South African Cricket Association's Arthur Coy,
1:03:28 > 1:03:31a confidant of Prime Minister Vorster, was there.
1:03:31 > 1:03:35Arthur Coy is sent over for the Lord's Test.
1:03:35 > 1:03:38He's a guest of Lord Cobham,
1:03:38 > 1:03:42who is considered a major friend of South African cricket.
1:03:42 > 1:03:46And he speaks to people like Gilligan and Gubby Allen
1:03:46 > 1:03:51off the record, that D'Oliveira would not be acceptable.
1:03:51 > 1:03:56So, the president of the MCC knew.
1:03:56 > 1:03:59And the treasurer of the MCC knew.
1:03:59 > 1:04:04And the secretary of the MCC knew. Al were at the selection meeting.
1:04:04 > 1:04:09- What was the issue about D'Oliveira? - Well, he was a black South African.
1:04:09 > 1:04:13Well, erm, a coloured South African.
1:04:13 > 1:04:18South Africa didn't allow coloured South Africans to...to, er...
1:04:18 > 1:04:21play a part in their...
1:04:21 > 1:04:25in their national sporting scene - it's as easy as that.
1:04:25 > 1:04:30Doug Insole was chairman of the selectors who picked the team.
1:04:30 > 1:04:35The others were Peter May, Alec Bedser, Don Kenyon
1:04:35 > 1:04:38and, ex officio, the captain, Colin Cowdrey.
1:04:38 > 1:04:42We can reveal that the only person who stood up for D'Oliveira
1:04:42 > 1:04:45was Don Kenyon.
1:04:45 > 1:04:50At the time of that selection, he had a Test batting average of 50.
1:04:50 > 1:04:56An enormously high average, up there with the really great
1:04:56 > 1:04:59IVA Ri..., I mean, it's superb.
1:04:59 > 1:05:02He had very strong credentials, there's no question.
1:05:02 > 1:05:06He was a very useful cricketer, and very popular in the side,
1:05:06 > 1:05:09and that's why we picked him.
1:05:09 > 1:05:12When the time came, we didn't pick him.
1:05:12 > 1:05:16Doug Insole, what way do you reckon he voted?
1:05:16 > 1:05:19Well, it appeared in the paper, didn't it?
1:05:19 > 1:05:24As far as he was concerned, they picked the best side.
1:05:24 > 1:05:29Ludicrously, the justification was the D'Oliveira's bowling
1:05:29 > 1:05:32would be ineffective on South African wickets.
1:05:32 > 1:05:36- What about Alec Bedser? - He's an important figure in this.
1:05:36 > 1:05:40He later became a founder member of the Freedom Association,
1:05:40 > 1:05:44which was a right-wing pressure group,
1:05:44 > 1:05:49partly funded by the apartheid regime in South Africa,
1:05:49 > 1:05:52as was declared in their accounts at the time,
1:05:52 > 1:05:56for the purpose of lobbying in Britain for apartheid,
1:05:56 > 1:06:01and for the South African system of white domination.
1:06:01 > 1:06:05And here he was playing a key role in the decision
1:06:05 > 1:06:09of whether to include Basil D'Oliveira in this tour.
1:06:09 > 1:06:14They won't admit it was politics, and I'm sure for them it wasn't politics.
1:06:14 > 1:06:18They believe they chose that team on merit.
1:06:18 > 1:06:23But they were also aware, if they had included D'Oliveira,
1:06:23 > 1:06:26the tour would have been cancelled.
1:06:26 > 1:06:30It's a failure of moral imagination by the selectors.
1:06:30 > 1:06:34Mind you, that is not what you choose them for.
1:06:34 > 1:06:38They should have understood that the only thing to do
1:06:38 > 1:06:42was to send Basil D'Oliveira back to South Africa.
1:06:42 > 1:06:46Pressure mounted, inside and outside the MCC.
1:06:46 > 1:06:50While they insisted that cricket should transcend politics,
1:06:50 > 1:06:55and should not be tainted by this awful, murky world
1:06:55 > 1:06:59of political intrigue and pressure groups,
1:06:59 > 1:07:04what they're really saying is that only one kind of politics
1:07:04 > 1:07:07should be allowed to taint cricket.
1:07:07 > 1:07:10They were happy to have cricket tainted
1:07:10 > 1:07:13by the racial politics of apartheid.
1:07:13 > 1:07:16It's inner workings was laid open.
1:07:16 > 1:07:20People began to question how the MCC worked, how cricket was run.
1:07:20 > 1:07:26In the past, the MCC had always managed to avoid this.
1:07:26 > 1:07:31You know, there's a concept of Englishness which cricket generates.
1:07:31 > 1:07:34It can't take in all other concepts.
1:07:34 > 1:07:38When you have such a basic clash that apartheid produced, it can't cope.
1:07:38 > 1:07:42What it seeks to do is to disguise the basic clashes,
1:07:42 > 1:07:47and say, "Ah, did he play correctly? Did he wear the right clothes?
1:07:47 > 1:07:50"Were his flannels clean or not?"
1:07:50 > 1:07:53Not whether it's right or wrong on essential moral issues.
1:07:53 > 1:07:56Then came the twist.
1:07:56 > 1:08:00Tom Cartwright, who had been chosen in preference to D'Oliveira,
1:08:00 > 1:08:03turned out to be injured.
1:08:03 > 1:08:08Now, this was the real catalyst of what happened with that tour.
1:08:08 > 1:08:12He was never fit to be selected, because of a shoulder problem.
1:08:12 > 1:08:18I knew that, yet the selectors took medical advice that he WAS fit.
1:08:18 > 1:08:22Cartwright pulled out, and the selectors, who had been shocked
1:08:22 > 1:08:26at the national outcry at D'Oliveira's non-selection,
1:08:26 > 1:08:29now had no option but to choose him.
1:08:29 > 1:08:33We were so happy. Now we can see Basil play at Newlands.
1:08:33 > 1:08:38We were elated, but the South African government wasn't!
1:08:38 > 1:08:41It was difficult. It became a make-up job,
1:08:41 > 1:08:45a job that's not clean any more to me.
1:08:45 > 1:08:48Now, they were clearly daring to pick a man
1:08:48 > 1:08:53who, surely, was not going to be easily accepted
1:08:53 > 1:08:56by the then government of South Africa.
1:08:56 > 1:09:01And indeed, D'Oliveira's selection was to be a fateful decision.
1:09:01 > 1:09:06His initial non-selection had let Vorster off a huge political hook.
1:09:06 > 1:09:11The MCC selection committee made their choice on merit...
1:09:11 > 1:09:14So they said, time and again,
1:09:14 > 1:09:17and I accept that statement.
1:09:17 > 1:09:21But, the moment the decision was known,
1:09:21 > 1:09:24there was an outcry.
1:09:24 > 1:09:29An outcry because a certain gentleman of colour
1:09:29 > 1:09:35was omitted on merit by the MCC selection committee.
1:09:35 > 1:09:41From then on, sir, D'Oliveira was no longer a sportsman...
1:09:43 > 1:09:45but a cricket ball.
1:09:45 > 1:09:51He claimed D'Oliveira was forced on the MCC by political pressure.
1:09:51 > 1:09:56The team...as constituted now...
1:09:56 > 1:10:00is not the team of the MCC.
1:10:00 > 1:10:04It is the team of the anti-apartheid movement.
1:10:04 > 1:10:09- APPLAUSE - He'd been let off the hook.
1:10:09 > 1:10:14His cabinet had already decided the tour would be off.
1:10:14 > 1:10:18I now say on behalf of South Africa,
1:10:18 > 1:10:24whereas we were always prepared to play host to the MCC,
1:10:24 > 1:10:29we are not prepared to receive a team thrust upon us.
1:10:29 > 1:10:34- LOUD CHEERING - His prohibiting D'Oliveira
1:10:34 > 1:10:38meant that he was able to appease that right-wing opinion,
1:10:38 > 1:10:41and keep his leadership intact.
1:10:41 > 1:10:44He can't... He can't play.
1:10:44 > 1:10:47- He can't come to South Africa. - That was sad.
1:10:47 > 1:10:50That was sad.
1:10:50 > 1:10:55Sir Alec, what's your first reaction to Premier Vorster's announcement?
1:10:55 > 1:10:59Well, one of disappointment for British cricket.
1:10:59 > 1:11:03It'll be a long time before another tour can go to South Africa,
1:11:03 > 1:11:06if Mr Vorster's words are final.
1:11:06 > 1:11:11What would have happened if there hadn't been all the ballyhoo
1:11:11 > 1:11:15about Mr D'Oliveira's non-selection, I don't know,
1:11:15 > 1:11:20they might have taken the team, but this is a sad day for cricket.
1:11:20 > 1:11:23The MCC committee decided unanimously
1:11:23 > 1:11:26that the tour will not take place.
1:11:26 > 1:11:31We were bitterly disappointed, but we admired the English authorities then
1:11:31 > 1:11:37for cancelling the tour, and not saying they'd go without Basil.
1:11:37 > 1:11:42The South African government had introduced race into sport.
1:11:42 > 1:11:46Not even Hitler's Germany could prevent Jesse Owens running
1:11:46 > 1:11:51in the 1936 Olympics - he actually ran in the Nazi Olympics in Berlin.
1:11:51 > 1:11:54But under the South African system,
1:11:54 > 1:12:00non-whites just did not play representative matches in any form.
1:12:00 > 1:12:05The D'Oliveira issue crystallised it into one single issue of a man
1:12:05 > 1:12:09who has chosen England, made his home here, proved himself,
1:12:09 > 1:12:13gets selected, then a Prime Minister of a country making a speech
1:12:13 > 1:12:18to his party congress, becoming an English cricket selector and saying,
1:12:18 > 1:12:22"No, you can't select him."
1:12:22 > 1:12:26It then became very symbolic in how sport and politics interact,
1:12:26 > 1:12:30and in how sport and race interact.
1:12:30 > 1:12:35Even those who were not political in South Africa, an average cricket fan,
1:12:35 > 1:12:40who believed politics should be separate from cricket,
1:12:40 > 1:12:44and adhered to that out of principle, were also angry
1:12:44 > 1:12:49that a top England cricketer - that's what he'd become by 1968 -
1:12:49 > 1:12:55was actually being excluded on an instruction of a foreign government.
1:12:55 > 1:12:58- NEWSCAST:- 'As the tour was finally bowled out by politics,
1:12:58 > 1:13:01'D'Oliveira signed copies of his book.'
1:13:01 > 1:13:06I would have been the only one, up till now,
1:13:06 > 1:13:10who could have gone there, played on these grounds,
1:13:10 > 1:13:15and mixing with people I, or the other non-whites in South Africa,
1:13:15 > 1:13:19'had never been allowed to mix with before.
1:13:19 > 1:13:24'If you go there, meet them on the same plane, the cricketing plane,
1:13:24 > 1:13:29'say, a cocktail party, or on the field, or in the hotel,
1:13:29 > 1:13:32'you're talking to people all the time,
1:13:32 > 1:13:36'and you can put across to them that non-whites
1:13:36 > 1:13:39'are not such bad people to live with.'
1:13:39 > 1:13:43From then until even now, as I go round the world,
1:13:43 > 1:13:48"You were set up." I still deny it because of my love for the game.
1:13:48 > 1:13:54I don't want to destroy people. I want good cricket, and good players.
1:13:54 > 1:14:00As far as I'm concerned, I've always abided by the laws made at Lord's
1:14:00 > 1:14:03by administrators - I think Mr Billy Griffith's
1:14:03 > 1:14:09and his colleagues, who make decisions, are men of integrity
1:14:09 > 1:14:13and men that can be trusted all the way.
1:14:17 > 1:14:22One of the great roles that he played in British society
1:14:22 > 1:14:27is that he helped alert people to the existence of apartheid,
1:14:27 > 1:14:32to the existence of a social system in South Africa that was nightmarish
1:14:32 > 1:14:34and inhumane.
1:14:34 > 1:14:38Basil was instrumental in all the outside sporting bodies
1:14:38 > 1:14:43taking a stand against South Africa in terms of the politics.
1:14:43 > 1:14:47Basil D'Oliveira's exclusion from the English cricket tour
1:14:47 > 1:14:52at the instructions of the South African government
1:14:52 > 1:14:55ignited real indignation in me.
1:14:55 > 1:14:58It lit a fuse of real anger
1:14:58 > 1:15:03that the cricket authorities here in England could still announce
1:15:03 > 1:15:09they were inviting a white South African team, barely a year later.
1:15:09 > 1:15:14The D'Oliveira scandal was the match which lit the successful
1:15:14 > 1:15:17"Stop The '70 Tour" campaign, led by Peter Hain.
1:15:17 > 1:15:22Basil D'Oliveira, as a victim of apartheid, actually helped,
1:15:22 > 1:15:26perhaps unwittingly, to bring down sports apartheid at least.
1:15:26 > 1:15:30Peter Hain and these guys got it right.
1:15:30 > 1:15:35The way to bring about change was to do it through the sport.
1:15:35 > 1:15:40The world sporting boycott moved this country faster to normalisation
1:15:40 > 1:15:44than any other activity.
1:15:44 > 1:15:49Because, you know, economic boycotts were...were, really...
1:15:49 > 1:15:52in word only.
1:15:52 > 1:15:55Once there wasn't international sport,
1:15:55 > 1:16:00people starting saying, "Well, we want sport, we must make changes
1:16:00 > 1:16:05"to bring it about." I think they got it absolutely right.
1:16:05 > 1:16:10After the Australian tour of '79/'70, it was wilderness for 22 years,
1:16:10 > 1:16:13until...until democracy.
1:16:13 > 1:16:17It became such that those who played the sport in South Africa
1:16:17 > 1:16:21on international level, they felt the pinch.
1:16:21 > 1:16:26They were not having visitors, they were not welcome elsewhere.
1:16:26 > 1:16:31So things had to change. And sport played a very valuable part
1:16:31 > 1:16:35in the changeover of the set-up in this country.
1:16:39 > 1:16:45In 2003, South Africa completed her international rehabilitation
1:16:45 > 1:16:49into world sport, by hosting the cricket World Cup.
1:16:54 > 1:16:57South African cricket is now united,
1:16:57 > 1:17:03with equal opportunities for all cricketers, black and white.
1:17:03 > 1:17:07It's a sports-mad country, and the isolation polities,
1:17:07 > 1:17:10which gained momentum
1:17:10 > 1:17:15and did isolate South Africa in sport, culture, and economically
1:17:15 > 1:17:19had its effect, its impact on South Africa,
1:17:19 > 1:17:23and ultimately saw the destruction of the racist regime.
1:17:25 > 1:17:30The opening ceremony of the cricket World Cup was held at Newlands,
1:17:30 > 1:17:33the Test ground in Cape Town,
1:17:33 > 1:17:38where the young D'Oliveira was never allowed to play.
1:17:42 > 1:17:47To symbolise the new democracy, he and the great batsman Graeme Pollock
1:17:47 > 1:17:51led the parade of South African sporting heroes.
1:17:51 > 1:17:57History will record the enormous role he played...
1:17:58 > 1:18:02..in ultimately bringing down the apartheid government.
1:18:04 > 1:18:07APPLAUSE
1:18:08 > 1:18:11Basil had to go and show Vorster,
1:18:11 > 1:18:15"This is what we can do." And he did it...
1:18:15 > 1:18:18like nobody else could.
1:18:18 > 1:18:23When Basil walked out at Newlands, that was a marvellous gesture.
1:18:23 > 1:18:26He walked out first, ahead of Graeme.
1:18:26 > 1:18:29The fact that he walked out first,
1:18:29 > 1:18:34that put Basil in his rightful place, that's how I felt.
1:18:34 > 1:18:38I just said, "OK, Bas?" "Yes."
1:18:38 > 1:18:44I really felt... That was the day I felt, "Thank you, Lord."
1:18:44 > 1:18:47- ANNOUNCER:- Ladies and gentlemen,
1:18:47 > 1:18:52the teams of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003!
1:18:52 > 1:18:55CHEERING
1:18:57 > 1:19:00BASIL CHUCKLES Basil, you got to walk on Newlands.
1:19:00 > 1:19:06I said I was going to do it, and you've backed me, and there we are.
1:19:06 > 1:19:09Who knows? I might make a come-back!
1:19:09 > 1:19:13HE CHUCKLES
1:19:16 > 1:19:22Bearing in mind that Basil played Test cricket between 35 and 40,
1:19:22 > 1:19:27he's got 2,500 runs, five centuries, 15 half-centuries,
1:19:27 > 1:19:30he was Wisden Cricketer of the Year,
1:19:30 > 1:19:34he scored the fastest century in Test cricket,
1:19:34 > 1:19:37all at the age 35 and upwards.
1:20:09 > 1:20:12Subtitles by BBC Broadcast - 2004
1:20:12 > 1:20:15E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk