Sportspersons Who Played in Apartheid South Africa

[Satchmo Distel]

Just reading this excellent book* on the West Indies cricketers who took apartheid blood money:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HBHC35R...ng=UTF8&btkr=1

The author mentions other sports: Arthur Ashe (1973)*, Billie Jean King (1981), Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo and Fuzzy Zoeller

Meanwhile, European and American golfing greats Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo and Fuzzy Zoeller teed off in the Million Dollar Golf Challenge at Sun City, and Argentine Guillermo Vilas slugged it out with American Vitas Gerulaitis in the 1983 South African Open.

Ashe claimed he wanted to ‘put a crack in the racist wall’. Instead he's on a wall of shame.

Lawrence Rowe lives just 90 miles or so from me. His interview with Gray is full of lies and evasions. A farcical end to the life of a batsman whom some rate higher than Viv for technical artistry.

*Gray, Ashley. The Unforgiven. Pitch Publishing. Kindle Edition.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

The British Lions (as they were then known) toured there in 1980 - officially that is, not a rebel tour.

Several cricket tours apart from the West Indies ones, most famously the rebel England one in 81/82. I'm sure there was a football one around the same time but can't find much reference to it.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

A piece about the football one

[Satchmo Distel]

There was also a Sri Lanka cricket rebel tour.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/l...n-1982-1079798

[Antepli Ejderha]

A piece about the football one

The only thing I remember about this was Jimmy Hill being involved.

"Berry turned it down on principle despite reportedly being offered ?20,000 and said: “I wouldn’t have gone for a king’s ransom. I asked the agent: ‘If I go, will it enable a black man to drink in a white club?’ He said no. That was all I needed to hear.” George Berry.

[Fearful Symmetry]

I've just finished The Unforgiven myself. Quite harrowing reading about the likes of Austin, Chang and Murray, but overall a great insight.

England went again in 1989/90, of course.

[The Mighty Trin]

A bit of a reverse, but my own rugby league team toured SA in 1962 and brought several white South Africans from ''amateur' rugby union into our very successful 1960's teams - Alan Skene, Gert Coetzee, Colin Greenwood and then Jan Prinsloo (via St Helens). It must have been a culture shock coming to 1960's Wakefield. I know it's not protocol, but if you are lockdown bored then I have a website (go to the South Africa link on the left of the homepage).

David Barends was not white and joined in 1970. I think he still lives somewhere near Wakefield.

Having spent 10 years working with Saffers and having loads of the buggers as mates, I really wish that rugby league had taken off over there, not least to stop their incessant talk about bloody rugby union. Apparently one reason it failed is that two rival governing bodies were set up and it all went pear shaped...

[jwdd27]

Kevin Keegan was out there at some point in the 1980s - when he helped open Glanford Park in 1988, his apartheid links provided an excuse for the then Scunthorpe Borough Council to boycott the event, which they were keen to do as the stadium had been relocated to and named after the neighbouring Glanford.

Keegan's excuse was that he'd been coaching black kiddies in the townships.

[G-Man]

Stanley Matthews and George Best were in South Africa for some reason at some point, coaching kiddies in townships. And F1 races were still held at Kyalami in the 1980s

Arthur Ashe was instrumental in have SA ejected from the Davis Cup in 1970. When SA was reinstated, it was placed in the American group. I suppose Ashe might have come to SA as part of that? That's quite different from rebel tours by greedy reactionaries.

[elguapo4]

Tony Ward always deserves credit as the only Irish rugby player to refuse to go on the early 80s tour to South Africa.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The golfers went for the Sun City Million dollar challenge, which in the 1980s was the richest prize in world golf. As well as Seve and Nick Faldo, Johnny Miller, Ray Floyd and Ian Woosnam were winners.

I recall at the time there was a bit of sophistry about Sun City, which claimed the resort was not part of the apartheid state, but Artists Against Apartheid were very clear that they they weren't "going to play Sun City".

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Apparently one reason it failed is that two rival governing bodies were set up and it all went pear shaped...

RL manages to do this with alarming regularity.

Back on RU, as well as that Lions tour I mentioned and the Ireland one that elguapo4 mentions (1981), France (1980) and England (1984) toured officially. New Zealand nearly went in 1985, it was cancelled and then went ahead as "rebel" tour in 1986 (as the New Zealand Cavaliers), which featured 28 of the 30 players selected for the cancelled official tour.

An IRB sanctioned World XV played two Tests there in 1989 (and also one in 1977 shortly after the Gleneagles Agreement).

[blameless]

And F1 races were still held at Kyalami in the 1980s

Indeed they were. Didn't seem to bother the authorities or drivers in the first half of the decade (after all, they turned up to race every year in countries run by military juntas at the time such as Argentina and Brazil), but eventually sponsor money talked and the SA GP was dropped from 1986 onwards.

There was a partial boycott of the 1985 race (primarily by the French teams), and Alan Jones was apparently given a bung to throw a sickie that year: https://f1i.com/news/276301-ecclesto...th-africa.html

[longeared]

Sean Kelly was suspended and missed the Montreal Olympics for racing in South Africa as part of a British and Irish team riding under assumed names. They got caught because a photographer stumbled across the race while searching for Liz and Dick who were honeymooning in the area, the photographs were distributed and the riders identified and banned. Clearly it didn't do them any harm in the long term as among the team was Pat McQuaid who went on to run cycling several decades later.

[Satchmo Distel]

It's worth noting that Gooch continued to play cricket in South Africa, for Western Province, during his ban, including a match against the rebel West Indies*, so he truly was a cunt and deserved all the stick he got in the 1986 WI tour. Giving him the captaincy later was a double insult.

I had also forgotten that WI life ban was lifted in 1989, allowing Ezra Moseley to be picked in 1989-90 and, ironically, break Gooch's hand. Colin Croft managed to have a back injury during his stint, despite having surgery down there. He was also subjected to apartheid humiliation on a train during the tour. He's the only rebel who seems to have expressed regret.

Barry Richards regards Clarke as the most hostile bowler he faced and I wonder if Clarke would have had more Tests had he not thrown the brick in Pakistan (which would have meant fewer Tests for one of the main quartet).

*IIRC restraint of trade rules (the Packer ruling) meant individuals could not be banned from playing domestic cricket anywhere in the winter, although nowadays Gooch would be under a 12 month contract.

[G-Man]

Sylvester Clarke, who was in both West Indies rebel tours, became a player for the provincial Transvaal side in 1984. He wasn't the first black player to play in the white cricket set-up (there was a cricket league in the anti-apartheid SACOS sports federation), but I think he might have been the first foreign black player.

[Satchmo Distel]

Alvin Kallicharran was three years earlier but was Indo-Guyanese.

[Janik]

Very surprised to see Billie Jean King’s name in the opening post. About as bemusing as Ashe. What was the story there, then? Fed Cup?

[Satchmo Distel]

The South African Open was a regular event on the tennis calendar and King won it twice. Ashe played Connors in two finals. Chris Evert won it in 1984. Pat Cash beat Brad Gilbert in the 1987 final.

Margaret Court praised apartheid when interviewed by the New Zealand Herald in 1970.

[Antepli Ejderha]

That last sentence does not surprise me.

[ursus arctos]

Piece on Ashe's visit

https://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2015...-africa/54575/

[Satchmo Distel]

Bob Hewitt said the blacks were happy under apartheid, according to that link.

[Jah Womble]

As did the majority of privileged whites. (An uncle of mine took the apartheid dollar at the time and trotted out that line on more than a few occasions.)

His intentions seemed admirable enough, but Ashe comes across as more than a bit idealistic and naive in what he personally thought he could achieve by playing there. And I guess he took the money...

Margaret Court, though. Bloody hell.

[Greenlander]

I recall a load of head in the sand coupled with the line 'politics and sport don't/shouldn't mix' from apartheid defenders while we were boycotting Barclays and Cape fruit. I'm definitely getting that book, it was on the shortlist for William Hill Sportsbook of the Year but I don't know if it won.

Edit: It didn't, it was The Rodchenkov Affair.

[matt j]

Roy Hodgson in 73-74ish. (Noticed it on wikipedia when I was trying to figure out exactly how old he was.) Looking up some other articles and it looks like he was questioned about it back during the England manager timeframe.