The D'Oliveira affair was a prolonged political and sporting controversy relating to the scheduled 1968–69 tour of South Africa by the England cricket team, who were officially representing the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).[note 1] The point of contention was whether the England selectors would include Basil D'Oliveira, a mixed-race South African player who had represented England in Test cricket since 1966, having moved there six years earlier. With South Africa under apartheid, the potential inclusion by England of a non-white South African in their tour party became a political issue.
A Cape Coloured of Indian and Portuguese ancestry, D'Oliveira left South Africa primarily because the era's apartheid legislation seriously restricted his career prospects on racial grounds and barred him from the all-white Test team. He qualified for Worcestershire County Cricket Club through residency in 1964 and first played for England two years later. The consequences of D'Oliveira's possible inclusion in the 1968–69 MCC tour of South Africa were discussed by English and South African cricketing bodies as early as 1966. Manoeuvring by cricketing and political figures in both countries did little to bring the matter to a head. The MCC's priority was to maintain traditional links with South Africa and have the series go ahead without incident. South Africa's Prime Minister John Vorster sought to appease international opinion by publicly indicating that D'Oliveira's inclusion would be acceptable, but secretly did all he could to prevent it.
D'Oliveira was omitted from the England team for part of 1968 amid a slump in his batting form, but he marked his return in late August with a score of 158 runs in England's final Test match of the year, against Australia at The Oval. Days later, the MCC selectors omitted D'Oliveira from the team to tour South Africa; they insisted that this was based entirely on cricketing merit, but many in Britain voiced apprehension and there was a public outcry. After Tom Cartwright's withdrawal because of injury on 16 September, the MCC chose D'Oliveira as a replacement, prompting accusations from Vorster and other South African politicians that the selection was politically motivated. Attempts to find a compromise followed, but these led nowhere. The MCC announced the tour's cancellation on 24 September.
Sporting boycotts of South Africa were already under way by 1968, but the D'Oliveira controversy was the first to have a serious effect on South African cricket. The South African Cricket Board of Control announced its intention to remove racial barriers in South African cricket in 1969, and formally integrated the sport in 1976. Meanwhile, the boycott movement escalated sharply, leading to South Africa's near-complete isolation from international cricket from 1971, though the country continued to play international rugby into the 1980s, twice allowing mixed-race New Zealand rugby teams into the country during the 1970s. D'Oliveira played for England until 1972, and for Worcestershire until 1979. South Africa returned to international cricket in 1991, soon after apartheid began to be dismantled.
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