"What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?” (Beyond A Boundary, CLR James,1963).

In 1968, South Africa refused to play against England because their team included a non-white South African cricketer. Over five decades later, the country’s first Black African Test captain has led South Africa to World Cup glory. History may take its time, but it rarely forgets to settle its debts.

On June 14, Temba Bavuma made history by becoming the first black South African to captain his side to a World Test Championship title. It is a moment that compels us to remember an immortal name: Basil D’Oliveira (1931-2011).

Born in Cape Town, South Africa, to a working-class migrant family of presumed Indo-Portuguese (likely Goan) descent, D’Oliveira embodied the deep scars of apartheid—a brutal system that systematically crushed the dreams and erased the futures of South Africa’s black and mixed-race communities.

Basil’s cricket-loving father, John, initiated all his three sons into the game, which was highly popular among the black and coloured communities of District Six where they lived. All three brothers -Basil, Ivan and Peter- soon became Cape Town’s stars. Basil was barely 21 when he became a sensation by hitting seven sixes and one four in an eight-ball over. Two years later, he scored 225 in 75 minutes out of his team’s total of 236. A good medium pacer too, Basil became the captain of Cape Town’s top cricket club, St Augustine’s, which his father had also led.

Even before apartheid was institutionalised in South Africa with the white supremacist National Party’s rise to power in 1948, racial segregation was in force in the country at all levels, including in sports. Only whites could represent the country in official international cricket matches, while Black, Indian and mixed-race cricketers played only in segregated non-white leagues in their impoverished ghettoes. None of the talented D’Oliveira brothers, like every other non-white sportsperson in the country, could break into the country’s top-level cricket. Among South Africa’s remarkable players of the period who faced similar exclusion were the black African fast bowler, Frank Roro, considered the quickest during the 1950s and 1960s, or Indians like Khalil Asmal, wicket-keeper batsman, Rangaswamy 'Papa’ Pillay and many........

© Mathrubhumi English