The saga of rebel tours

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan of Cricinfo, looks back at the rebel tour of West Indian cricketers to apartheid South Africa in 1983. A must read.

The bunch of 18 talented cicketers, who could not break their way into the strong Went Indian side undertook the trip, since the money on offer was lucrative. The fact that immenselely talended cricketers like Colin Croft, Collis King, Alvin Kallicharan, Sylvester Clarke and Lawrence Rowe took this decision is a testimony to the tremendous strength of the West Indian National squad at that point of time. They became instant heroes in South Africa with their typical aggressive style of play, though at home, they are still considered as outcasts. All the players were handed out life bans by the West Indian Cricket Board.

During South Africa's isolation from world cricket during apartheid (1970-1991), a number of rebel tours were organized by Dr.Ali Bacher. Here is the list:

1981-82: An English squad led by Graham Gooch was the first team. All the concerned players, including the captain were banned for 3 years.

1982: A group of players from Sri Lanka toured South Africa under the name of 'Arosa Sri Lanka'. B Warnapura led the side. The whole team was banned for life, which however was subsequently revoked.

1982-83 and 1983-84: Lawrence Rowe captained the side, whose participants were subsequently banned from West Indian cricket and in some cases even cast out from social life in the Carribean. A few players like Richard Austin and Herbert Chang had their life busted and are still leading a reclusive life.

1985 and 1987: Post his resignation as the skipper of Australia, Kim Hughes led a group of Australian cricketers to South Africa.

1990: This was the final rebel tour which featured England, led by Mike Gatting, who was consequently banned for three years. This tour was a debacle since it was at a period when apartheid was about to be relaxed.