by PeterOborne (Author)
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.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Little, Brown
Published: 17 Jun 2004
ISBN 10: 0316725722
ISBN 13: 9780316725729
Prizes: Winner of WH Smith Sports Book of the Year Award 2005 and British Sports Book Awards: Biography 2005.