South Africa commence their 2017 tour with a warm-up in Hove and of the 15 players in the one-day squad,eight are non-whiteIn the 1980s, when football was rotting, and English cricket developed a penchant (a tendency, partiality, or preference) for leaping off the sports pages on to page one. Sometimes it would be sex; sometimes drugs; sometimes even cricket (beating Australia 1981; losing to the Netherlands 1989). Mostly,though, it was race.
And nothing created quite as much sensation as the arrival, or in March 1982,of a dozen main English cricketers in the pariah state of South Africa, ready to play a month’s worth of unauthorised matches for sums in the tall five-figures sterling – that were very tempting to the underpaid pros of that era. Related: Last of the Kolpaks? Why South Africans are in a rush before Brexit bites | Andy Bull Related: English rebels who ignored apartheid cause still point to a lack of shame | Paul Weaver Related: SAB's paunchy cheques brought disgrace upon world cricket in 1982 Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com