Basil D'Oliveira

I am half way through Peter Obourne's book on the great all rounder. (Those with no interest in cricket had better stop here: in fact those who are interested in cricket should stop here as well, and go immediately to find out what's happening in the final Pakistan-India test.)
A fantastically moving book. Dolly barely got to play on grass until he came to England to play club cricket at the age of 28, and didn't play an officially recognised first class game until he was 30. Not bad for an England player who ended up with 2,484 runs averaging over 40, and 47 wickets. His best playing years were spent in South Africa playing on dirt and canvas covered pitches, where he was renowned, among other things, for his love of hitting sixes. When he first arrived in England he was delayed getting out of the airport as he couldn't find the blacks and coloured channels, similarly when he first went to play for his club, he stood outside for a long time wondering where the changing room was for non-white players.
As Obourne points out, we hear much of the great white South African players (Richards, Proctor et al) who were denied their prime playing years by the boycott of South Africa, but little of the many "non-white" players who were never allowed a chance and of whom we have not heard.
Another thing I didn't know (or had forgotten) was that when they introduced the Population Act of 1950, to define the population by race, members of the same families could be differently classified, not only hugely affecting their prospects, freedom etc., but also meaning they could no longer live in the same area, let alone house. If your son was classified coloured, he could not even legally visit a parent who lived in a white area.
More amusingly, I like the idea of BJ Vorster thinking the MCC Committee of the mid-sixties were a bunch of dangerous, subversive pinkos.