Not a jolly time for Dolly in 1968

D'Oliveira with his wife Naomi and son Damian after receiving the Order of the British Empire (OBE) at Buckingham Palace, London, in 1969. pic/mid-day archives

What happened 50 years ago in cricket; in 1968 to be precise? Australia whitewashed India 4-0 Down Under at the start of the year, England won their Test series in the West Indies 1-0 during the month of March, and Garry Sobers hit six sixes in one over during a county game for Nottinghamshire.

A few days earlier, England won the Oval Test of the Ashes series after the final day was almost lost to a storm. With Australia all set to take home the Ashes, everyone at the ground did their bit to get play underway. Play resumed and Australia lost their last five wickets for 15 runs and with it, their grip on the Ashes urn.

What turned out to be more historic was an innings played on the second day of that Oval Test, a knock that came off the blade of Basil D'Oliveira, a Cape-coloured England player. Despite that 158, he was dropped from the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) squad for their winter tour of SA.

The England selectors insisted that D'Oliveira, nicknamed Dolly, was excluded on cricketing grounds, but not many bought that reasoning. D'Oliveira's South African background and the prevalence of apartheid there were too obvious to ignore. However, Doug Insole, the chairman of England selectors, said that D'Oliveira would be called on in case of an emergency. And he was! The 'emergency' in this case was an injury to fast bowler Tom Cartwright.

The South African government objected to D'Oliveira's selection and Prime Minister John Vorster made it clear that he would not be welcome on their turf. The tour was off.

Back to D'Oliveira's 158 on August 23. After an innings like that, he was justified in believing that he had booked his ticket for the tour. The South Africa tour selection announcement coincided with D'Oliveira's county match for Worcestershire against Sussex a day after the Oval Test ended. He slammed, in his own words, a "carefree hundred." And after he completed his century, he asked the Sussex bowlers to bowl him a "straight one" and he'll get out to catch the 6:30 pm radio news which would announce the squad for South Africa, for which he was dropped. D'Oliveira was shattered and cried like a kid in the physio's room.

Nevertheless, his England career was not over. He was part of Ray Illingworth's 1970-71 Ashes-winning squad and scored a hundred in the Melbourne Test. He figured in the 1971 Test series, which India won in England, and his sense of fair play came shining through when he took issue with fast bowler John Snow for colliding with Sunil Gavaskar during the opening Test at Lord's.

Unfortunately, D'Oliveira became synonymous with the 1968 controversy, but his story is too inspiring to be under-played. As a young cricketer in Cape Town, he would walk seven miles from his home to watch Test matches at Newlands from a stand strictly meant for non-whites.

He put up some impressive performances on the club scene but couldn't be part of first-class cricket in South Africa due to apartheid and, in 1958, he wrote to John Arlott in the hope of the famous broadcaster getting him a club contract in England. Arlott tried but found it difficult to convince clubs that a South African would be an asset to them on softer tracks. Two years later, a letter from Arlott arrived to confirm that a club called Middleton in the Central Lancashire League would pay him £450 for one season. His airfare to England would use up £200, leaving him with only £250 to survive the season.

He could have given up on his English dream purely on the basis of the remuneration, but was egged on by his pregnant wife Naomi. Then there were three friends - Damoo Bansda, his brother-in-law Frank Brache and Ishmail Adams. They raised funds to the tune of 450 at matches where coins were collected in buckets. In March 1960, D'Oliveira boarded his flight to England to play league cricket for Middleton. A county contract with Worcestershire came four years later.

In 1966, he was picked to play for England against the touring West Indians at Lord's after being 12th man at Manchester. D'Oliveira went up to the Lord's balcony and wished all those people who had helped him back home at Signal Hill could see him. And with that proud thought came a prayer and determination not to let those folks down. D'Oliveira didn't. He was run out for 27 at the non-striker's end as Jim Parks's straight drive off Wes Hall hit D'Oliveira's heel en route the stumps while he was out of his crease.

Against India the following year, he scored a hundred at Leeds and hardly missed a Test. At the end of the 1972 Ashes, he sensed he wouldn't be picked for the winter tour of India. At 41, he retired from international cricket to give more time to his beloved county Worcestershire for whom he played till 1980. Parkinson's disease caused his death in 2011.

Since 2004-05, England and South Africa play for the Basil D'Oliveira Trophy. Even for a man who knew what it was to live one's dreams, D'Oliveira wouldn't have envisaged such an honour 50 years ago. But it's a funny game, Dolly.

mid-day's group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance. He tweets @ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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