Basil D'oliveira: Cricket and Controversy

(Paperback)

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There have been innumerable biographies of cricketers. Peter Oborne's outstanding biography of Basil D'Oliveira is something else. It brings together sport, politics and race. It is the story of how a black South African defied incredible odds and came to play cricket for England, of how a single man escaped from apartheid and came to fulfil his prodigious sporting potential. It is a story of the conquest of racial prejudice, both in South Africa and in the heart of the English sporting establishment. The story comes to its climax in the so-called D'Oliveira Affair of 1968, when John Vorster, the South African Prime Minister, banned the touring MCC side because of the inclusion of a black man. This episode marked the start of the twenty-year sporting isolation of South Africa that ended only with the collapse of apartheid itself.

Reviews

'It is an inspirational story and one which never fails to move this reader' Michael Parkinson, TELEGRAPH 'Oborne tells this remarkable story with the tautness of a thriller and the focus of a political tract. I guarantee that you will read his book at one sitting.' Peter Wilby, NEW STATESMAN 'It is a masterpiece of research and reconstruction of the most significant sporting uprising of our times' DAILY MAIL

Author Bio

Peter Oborne is the highly-regarded Political Columnist of the SPECTATOR and contributes widely to current affairs programmes on radio and TV.