Cricket has an enviable history of providing its supporters with tonnes of watershed moments as compared to other public sports. The date of 04/01/2016 thus shall go down in that glorious lineage of memorable dates as this day provided us with a moment so legendary that generations to come will be teary eyed remembering it. Cape Town test at a picturesque Newlands ground stood witness to history as Temba Bavuma, a black African cricketer by birth, became the first ever black cricketer from SA to score a test century. The whole Cricketing world and all of SA went into a delirium in celebrating this glorious feat. A country with 80% black African population deserved a hero in SA Cricket and until now, they had only Makhaya Ntini and Paul Adams (remember the Chinaman with unusual shoulder bending bowling action) to refer to but they were both bowlers. Today, Temba 'Bravo-Ma' Bavuma fulfilled that long standing dream.
And in doing that, Temba somewhat corrected the chequered history of South African Sports. South Africa went into isolation, entered Apartheid era as it's most fondly remembered as and entire world almost forgot about South African Rugby and Cricket. Gifted cricketers such as Barry Richards, Graeme Pollock, Eddie Barlow, Mike Procter, Ali Bacher and many more lost out on outstanding careers. South Africa used to be one of the largest and most important colonies for both Dutch and English. The country gave us Gandhi but even Gandhi couldn't provide its natives with level playing field. The country was ruled by for majority of its period by white Europeans who only made up for 15-17% of its population. In 1968-69, England was scheduled to tour SA for a test series and they included Basil D'Oliviera in the squad. Basil was a cricketer of prodigious talent, an attacking batsman and nicknamed 'Dolly' for his jolly-good nature but he was also a cape-colored, SA born cricketer who made a move to England for lack of enough cricket playing opportunities for his native country SA till then didn't make the arrangements for colored and black South Africans to play Cricket or any other sports for country. Little did Basil know that he was going to turn around History on its head. The then SA Prime Minister, John Vorster maintained that Basil must be omitted in order to make the tour happen but England relented and opponents of Apartheid made a grand show out of it. The tour was ultimately cancelled and South Africa was discarded by the entire world. 'D'Oliviera affair' as it came to be known popularly as in later years had just started to change the world order for good.
It wasn't until 1994 that South Africa came into World's reckoning as it completed a successful transformation to democracy under Nelson Mandela from a seriously divergent white-minority Government. Couple of years prior to that, they were readmitted to world of Cricket. Since their readmission to world cricket, SA still hasn't found a suitable quota system to represent its cricket team. SA calls itself a 'rainbow nation' and entire world agrees to it for its a beautiful country resplendent with natural resources and magnificent landscapes but its cricket team still isn't a true representative of its varied demographics. However, with explosion of Ntini, Rabada and now Bavuma, we can all expect landslide change in world of SA Cricket. For now, we can all congratulate TENDA BAVUMA for his superlative efforts and completing off an arduous, painful yet rewarding journey that was first undertaken by the Great Basil. Basil must be very happy today in whatever world he has gone onto, his legacy being immortalized forever by Bavuma now........#HistoryChanged.......#TendaBavuma.......#BasilD'Oliviera
And in doing that, Temba somewhat corrected the chequered history of South African Sports. South Africa went into isolation, entered Apartheid era as it's most fondly remembered as and entire world almost forgot about South African Rugby and Cricket. Gifted cricketers such as Barry Richards, Graeme Pollock, Eddie Barlow, Mike Procter, Ali Bacher and many more lost out on outstanding careers. South Africa used to be one of the largest and most important colonies for both Dutch and English. The country gave us Gandhi but even Gandhi couldn't provide its natives with level playing field. The country was ruled by for majority of its period by white Europeans who only made up for 15-17% of its population. In 1968-69, England was scheduled to tour SA for a test series and they included Basil D'Oliviera in the squad. Basil was a cricketer of prodigious talent, an attacking batsman and nicknamed 'Dolly' for his jolly-good nature but he was also a cape-colored, SA born cricketer who made a move to England for lack of enough cricket playing opportunities for his native country SA till then didn't make the arrangements for colored and black South Africans to play Cricket or any other sports for country. Little did Basil know that he was going to turn around History on its head. The then SA Prime Minister, John Vorster maintained that Basil must be omitted in order to make the tour happen but England relented and opponents of Apartheid made a grand show out of it. The tour was ultimately cancelled and South Africa was discarded by the entire world. 'D'Oliviera affair' as it came to be known popularly as in later years had just started to change the world order for good.
It wasn't until 1994 that South Africa came into World's reckoning as it completed a successful transformation to democracy under Nelson Mandela from a seriously divergent white-minority Government. Couple of years prior to that, they were readmitted to world of Cricket. Since their readmission to world cricket, SA still hasn't found a suitable quota system to represent its cricket team. SA calls itself a 'rainbow nation' and entire world agrees to it for its a beautiful country resplendent with natural resources and magnificent landscapes but its cricket team still isn't a true representative of its varied demographics. However, with explosion of Ntini, Rabada and now Bavuma, we can all expect landslide change in world of SA Cricket. For now, we can all congratulate TENDA BAVUMA for his superlative efforts and completing off an arduous, painful yet rewarding journey that was first undertaken by the Great Basil. Basil must be very happy today in whatever world he has gone onto, his legacy being immortalized forever by Bavuma now........#HistoryChanged.......#TendaBavuma.......#BasilD'Oliviera
Comments
Post a Comment