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TheSouth African rebel tours were a series of sevencricket tours staged between 1982 and 1990. They were known as the rebel tours because the international cricketing bodiesbanned South Africa from competitive international cricket throughout this period because ofapartheid. As such the tours were organised and conducted in spite of the express disapproval of national cricket boards and governments, theInternational Cricket Conference and international organisations such as theUnited Nations.[1] The tours were the subject of enormous contemporaneous controversy and remain a sensitive topic throughout the cricket-playing world.
Until Olympic exclusion in 1964 and theD'Oliveira affair in 1968, only white athletes had been allowed to represent South Africa in international sport, a reflection of apartheid society in South Africa from 1948, and the social conventions prior to that time.[2]
In 1971, aninternational sports boycott was instituted against South Africa to voice global disapproval of their selection policies and apartheid in general. South Africa subsequently became a world sporting pariah, and were excluded from theOlympics, theFIFA World Cup,Test cricket, international rugby union and a host of other sports.[3]
The boycott effected measurable change on policy and opinion in sports selection – and cricket in particular.[4] In 1976, theSouth African Cricket Union (SACU) was created to administer the game in the republic on a multi-racial, meritocratic basis: so-called "normal" cricket.[5] However, this was insufficient to ensure South Africa's re-admission to international cricket. Inside the Republic, many non-whites resented "normal" cricket, which was seen as a feeble concession in the wider context of life under apartheid, and declined to take part.[6] Outside the Republic, three of the six ICC Full Members—India, Pakistan and the West Indies—flatly refused to countenance re-admission until apartheid itself was dismantled.[7]
After a decade of isolation, cricket in the Republic was weak: standards, attendances and youth participation were all declining. Overseas, the game had been revolutionised by theWorld Cup andWorld Series Cricket, but isolation had deprived South Africa of these commercial and competitive engines. In 1979,Doug Insole, an English representative on theICC, had told SACU'sAli Bacher: "Until apartheid goes, you can forget about getting back into world cricket."[8]
Bacher and SACU felt obliged to act to "keep the game alive in South Africa".[9] Since players were endangering their careers by breaking the boycott, SACU had to offer substantial sums to entice their targets. These rebels would play "unofficial" internationals against a Proteas team who considered themselves as strong as any team in world cricket, except theWest Indies.[10][unreliable source?] In the earliest rebel tours,Mike Procter andPeter Kirsten captained home teams featuringBarry Richards,Graeme Pollock,Clive Rice andGarth Le Roux. By their conclusion in 1990, many of them had retired and were replaced by the likes ofHansie Cronje andAllan Donald.[11]
The boycott movement opposed any such tours: they felt that engagement lent credibility and a propaganda coup to theNational Party. But the SACU insisted that all funding came directly from commercial sponsorship, and that the tours would be conducted independently of government. Initially, at least, overseas opponents could not prove otherwise, while inside South Africa, non-white opposition, as under apartheid more generally, was barely heard due to restrictions on freedoms ofpress,speech andassembly.[12]
The first major tour was by an English team led byGraham Gooch in March 1982. Twelve cricketers, 11 of them with Test caps, had agreed in secret to make a one-month tour of the Republic. The news only broke when they arrived in Johannesburg. The players expected a brief public outcry and a slap on the wrist from the ICC. Instead they were the subject of global outrage among press and politicians, and labelled "the Dirty Dozen" in theHouses of Parliament.[13]
The reaction in South Africa could not have been more different. The government and white newspapers hailed the return of international cricket. Apart fromIan Botham, it was said, this was the full-strength England team.[14] Springbok colours were awarded to the home side in a series of three "Tests". There were also three "one-day internationals".
The on-field action "made a mockery of the immense off-field publicity".[15] The so-calledSouth African Breweries XI were under-prepared and, with the exception of Gooch and Emburey, either past their best or fairly marginal members of the England side (in fact, Taylor and later call-ups Humpage and Sidebottom had not played a Test for England at the time, and Humpage never did play a Test at all). They were beaten by a South Africa team for whom the uncappedJimmy Cook andVintcent van der Bijl starred. The Proteas, captained byMike Procter, won the "Test" series 1–0 and "ODI" series 3–0.[16]
The rebels, who numbered 15 after hiring three further players to cover injuries, all received three-year bans from international cricket. These suspensions ended the careers of more than half the squad includingGeoffrey Boycott, the world's leading Test run-scorer at that time. Lever (1), Sidebottom (1), Taylor (2), Willey (6) and Larkins (7) each played a few more Tests, but only Gooch and Emburey had extensive Test careers afterwards (and indeed, both were later to captain England – Emburey for two tests in 1988 against the West Indies, having been a fixture in the side since his return in 1985: Gooch for the final test of that series, then later as the regular captain from the 1989–90 tour of the West Indies to the 1993 Ashes series, remaining as a player for two further years after that). Emburey, in fact, went on England's second rebel tour in 1989, served another three-year ban for it, and was selected again for some matches between 1992 and 1995, though no longer as a regular fixture in the side.[17]
Sri Lanka was a fledgling Test nation in 1982, playing their inaugural match against England atColombo in February of that year.Bandula Warnapura's side were beaten by seven wickets against an experienced visiting team and would fail to win four further Tests as the year progressed.[21]
Then in October it was announced that Warnapura was leading a 14-man rebel squad to South Africa. The team would be called Arosa Sri Lanka after the initials of their player managerAnthony Ralph Opatha and the host nation. The players were vehemently denounced acrossIndia,Pakistan and theCaribbean as well as in their homeland.[22]
For the second successive tour, white South Africa was forced to put on a brave front in acclaiming sporting triumph where there was none. A full-strength Sri Lankan team was some way off international competitiveness so it was little surprise that a makeshift rebel outfit was utterly humiliated, failing to win a single tour match. Now captained byPeter Kirsten ofWestern Province, South Africa comfortably won all four 'ODIs' and both 'Tests'.Lawrence Seeff, who replaced the injuredBarry Richards, andGraeme Pollock made 188 and 197 respectively in the second 'Test' but protested that the matches could not be classed as international cricket. SACU, trying to protect the 'unofficial international' brand it had created, fined them for the admission.[23]
Life became very difficult for the Sri Lankans who were ostracised at home for a decision many called treasonous. All players received a 25 year ban from theBoard of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka, which would be lifted in 1991. None played international cricket for the island again, even after the ban was lifted, although Aponso represented theNetherlands in the1996 Cricket World Cup at the age of 43.[24]
The West Indian players were mainly talented understudies struggling to break into the greatWest Indian Test team of the period, or men past their prime as Test players. First-class cricketers in the West Indies were then poorly paid and the participants, many of whom had irregular or no employment in the off-season, received between US$100,000 and US$125,000 for the two tours. West Indies cricket was so strong thatClive Lloyd had little need for the likes ofLawrence Rowe,Collis King andSylvester Clarke. Rowe has since stated that he and several other players were disillusioned with theWest Indies Cricket Board for not selecting them despite good performances.[26]
The strength of Caribbean cricket was evidenced in the 'international' matches, where South Africa received their first real test. A fiercely contested four-week series in 1982–3 took 'unofficial internationals' to new heights, the Proteas winning the one-day series 4–2 while the 'Test' series was drawn 1–1. The dominant theme of the match-ups was West Indian fast bowling.Colin Croft was one of fourWorld Cup winners in the party. Their pace battery, featuring Clarke, Croft, Stephenson,Bernard Julien andEzra Moseley, considerably unsettled the Proteas batsmen, who were forced to wear helmets for the first time.
The frantic first series, again organised in secret and conducted on the hoof, set up a fierce battle when the West Indians returned for a full tour the following season. Clarke was by now the dominant player on either side, claiming four five-wicket hauls in the 2–1 'Test' series win. The West Indian XI also won the one-day series 4–2, helped slightly by the Proteas weakening:Barry Richards andVince van der Bijl retired in 1983, andMike Procter, 36, played only a single 'one-day' international over both tours.[27]Henry Fotheringham,Ken McEwan,Rupert Hanley,Dave Richardson andMandy Yachad made their debuts for South Africa.Clive Rice was handed the captaincy for the 3rd and 4th "Tests" after the sacking ofPeter Kirsten for the 'ODI' series defeat. Kirsten maintained his place in the team and top scored in the next match.Graham Gooch played against the West Indies team during both tours as a member of a South African provincial side.
The improvement in the on-field action was in strict contrast to the off-field environment. South Africa stood permanently on the brink of civil war asPW Botha's brutal government repressed the black majority and excluded them from a new 'multi-racial' parliament. This oppression was met with violent reprisals while the rebels were controversial figures in the townships that had worshipped West Indian cricketers only to see them collaborating with the apartheid enemy.[28]
The participants received a life ban from Caribbean cricket in 1983. In many instances, they were ostracised socially and professionally, such was the hostility toward players that complied with the South African apartheid system.[29][30][31] In contrast, the players commented on a warm reception from both blacks and whites in South Africa and the tour may have been a positive influence on relations between races. It was one of the few occasions when white and black people had played sport together in South Africa. The players' bans were lifted in 1989 (althoughMonte Lynch appeared in ODI's for England a year earlier against the touring West Indians) but the only tour member who played for West Indies again was Moseley, at the age of 32 (two tests in the 1989–90 home series against England: though he did not take many wickets, his appearance was chiefly notable for breaking Graham Gooch's hand, forcing Gooch – now England's captain – to miss the remainder of the series).Franklyn Stephenson and Clarke had very successful first-class careers in South African and English domestic cricket: and Stephenson in particular could perhaps be thought unlucky not to be given a chance in Test cricket, given the precedent set by Moseley's selection and the fact that his performances in the English county championship had been nothing short of spectacular.
A fierce battle raged – and continues to rage[32] – over the morality of the West Indian tours.
The tours by theAustralians were led by former Test captainKim Hughes, with South Africa winning both "Test" series 1–0. The squad included several players who represented Australia at Test level, such as fast bowlersTerry Alderman,Rodney Hogg andCarl Rackemann, spinnersTrevor Hohns andTom Hogan opening batsmanJohn Dyson andSteve Smith, weakening the official Australian Test side by depriving it of several of its best players.[35] The tour prompted Australian prime ministerBob Hawke to call the group "traitors" and in retrospect has been called "one of the most painful and traumatic moments in Australian cricket history."[36]
Hughes accused theAustralian Cricket Board of fostering dissatisfaction among the players, making recruitment for the rebel tours easy.[37] Hughes did return toSheffield Shield cricket in 1988 but never played international cricket again and later returned to South Africa to play forNatal. However, Alderman, Hohns and Rackemann returned to represent Australia in later series, starting in 1989. Wessels—a South African by birth, who had been playing for Australia only because of the international ban on South African sport—returned to his native country, playing and captaining for South Africa on their readmission to Test cricket, and later became the first person to score official Test centuries for two nations.
Onthe first Australian tour, 1985–86, fast bowlersHugh Page andCorrie van Zyl made their debuts for South Africa. Duringthe second tour in 1986–87, batsmanBrian Whitfield and spinnerOmar Henry who became the second non-white player to represent South Africa, and two future stars, all-rounderBrian McMillan and fast bowlerAllan Donald made their South African debuts.Kepler Wessels played for the Australian team on their second tour.
South Africa won both 'Test' series 1–0, both 'ODI' series and a 'day-night' series. However, the on-field action could never escape the shadow of apartheid. Newspaper revelations in January 1986[38] revealed what non-white leaders in South Africa and anti-apartheid campaigners worldwide had been claiming for years: the tours were not funded by business, asAli Bacher andSACU had always insisted, but by the apartheid government through enormous tax breaks.[39]
In 1990, the final tour was led by former England captainMike Gatting. The team included former and contemporary England players such as batsmenTim Robinson,Bill Athey andChris Broad, wicketkeeperBruce French, and the fast bowlersPaul Jarvis,Graham Dilley andNeil Foster.
Kepler Wessels returned to represent the land of his birth.Roy Pienaar,Dave Rundle andRichard Snell made their debuts for South Africa.Jimmy Cook was appointed as South African captain andAllan Donald took 8 wickets for 59 in the match. South Africa went on to win the only 'Test'.[42] England lost the limited overs series 3–1.[43]
Most of the squad did not play for England again. Gatting served a three-year ban from Test cricket before his recall to the England side for the tour ofIndia andSri Lanka in 1992–93, along withJohn Emburey andPaul Jarvis. Emburey made both rebel tours and served two suspensions. Foster subsequently played a solitary Test, against Australia at Lord's in 1993, as didAlan Wells (against the West Indies in 1995).Matthew Maynard played three more tests, two in the 1993 Ashes and one in the following tour of the West Indies.
The squad for the rebel tour was announced during the fourth Test of the1989 Ashes series in England. Players in the squad were not considered for the rest of the series, which allowed future long-term England players, batsman and later England captainMichael Atherton as well as fast bowlerDevon Malcolm, an opportunity to make their England debuts.
The tour was a financial disaster as it coincided with the "unbanning" of theAfrican National Congress and the release from prison ofNelson Mandela. As South Africa began the dismantling of apartheid,Ali Bacher was surprised at the scale of the mass demonstrations against the tour as previous rebel tours had passed smoothly in the country.[44] The second tour scheduled for 1990–91 was cancelled.
Thirty-one players were selected to play for South Africa in the 19 Rebel "Tests".Vintcent van der Bijl,Rupert Hanley,Denys Hobson,Kevin McKenzie,Alan Kourie,Brian Whitfield,Kenny Watson,Roy Pienaar,Hugh Page,Ray Jennings,Henry Fotheringham,Lawrence Seeff,Stephen Jefferies,Ken McEwan andGarth Le Roux all retired or were beyond their prime before official international cricket resumed for South Africa. Before isolation,Graeme Pollock (23 Tests),Mike Procter (7 Tests) andBarry Richards (4 Tests) had played official Test cricket.
South Africa resumed official international cricket in 1991 with ashort tour of India, and participation in the1992 Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.Clive Rice (3),Corrie van Zyl (2),Dave Rundle (2) andMandy Yachad (1), only played in official ODIs for South Africa. Being in the twilight of their careers,Jimmy Cook played 3 Tests and 6 ODIs,Peter Kirsten 12 Tests and 40 ODIs,Adrian Kuiper 1 Test and 25 ODIs andOmar Henry 3 Tests and 3 ODIs.
However,Allan Donald, 72 Tests and 164 ODIs,Brian McMillan 38 Tests and 78 ODIs andDave Richardson 42 Tests and 122 ODIs, became the backbone of the new Protea outfit, and to a lesser extent,Richard Snell who played in 5 Tests and 42 ODIs.Kepler Wessels became captain of the team and played in 16 Tests and 55 ODIs for South Africa. During the years of isolation, Wessels played for Australia in 24 Tests and 54 ODIs.
An additional eleven players were selected to play for South Africa in Rebel 'ODIs' without playing in a Rebel 'Test'. Of these,Daryll Cullinan (70 Tests and 138 ODIs),Fanie de Villiers (18 Tests and 83 ODIs) andMark Rushmere (1 Test and 4 ODIs) played both official Test and ODI matches once South Africa returned to international cricket.Eric Simons (23 ODIs) andTim Shaw (9 ODIs) only played official ODIs.
Six players,Robert Armitage,Robert Bentley,Lee Barnard,Anton Ferreira,Brett Matthews andTrevor Madsen did not play official international cricket either before or after South Africa's 20 year moratorium from International cricket between 1971 and 1991.
All of the matches played during the rebel tours were granted first-class status, which was subsequently withdrawn by theInternational Cricket Council in 1993. As of August 2007[update], the ICC is reviewing the status of all matches played in South Africa between 1961 and 1991, including those played during the rebel tours, with a view to restoring first-class status to some matches.[46]
