SA Footy

Back in the bad old days of 'Apartheid' with Nelson Mandela sitting in his Prison cell on Robben Island
Australian Cricketers were invited to tour South Africa, much to Bob Hawke's & the Nations dismay.
Being labelled 'Traitors' by the then Prime Minister were players such as...
Terry Alderman
John Dyson
(Former Captain) Kim Hughes
Rodney Hogg
& South Aussie Michael Haysman who I believe remained.
He's a commentator over there now, is that right?
I vaguely remember seeing a story about him on Fox Sports 'Cricket Show'

Yeah I saw that interview with Mike haysman and hes married a South African has some sort of promotions business............only disappointment he came across as the Warrick Capper of cricket........a few cents short of the dollar......

Fair to say that Australia would not have struggled so badly in the mid-80s had the Rebels been available for selection.

However, one could argue that Australia would not have been as strong in the following years.

Because the mid-80s crisis really shook things up.

The full touring party...

Terry Alderman
John Dyson
Peter Faulkner
Michael Haysman
Tom Hogan
Rodney Hogg
Trevor Hohns
Kim Hughes
Rod McCurdy
Graham Yallop
John Maguire
Carl Rackemann
Steve Rixon
Greg Shipperd
Steve Smith
Mick Taylor
Graham Yallop

An interested read...

http://www.theage.com.au/news/cricket/rebels--the-85-south-africa-tour/2005/12/09/1134086816276.html

21 years ago, f#ck, it doesn't seem that long ago

There are links to all the 80s rebel tour details (including West Indies) here:

http://www1.cricinfo.com/db/NATIONAL/RSA/SERIES/ALL.html

Graeme Pollock (age 41) scored a century in the first 'test' in 85-86.
Only got a limited run in official test matches before SAf were banned of course.

It's amazing how the WSC SuperTests are not first class status but these matches are.

spell_check wrote:It's amazing how the WSC SuperTests are not first class status but these matches are.

It's amazing that matches against Zimbabwe and Banglasdesh count as tests.

Yet WSC is completely ignored - and most likely forever will be - thanks to the toffs at Lord's.

spell_check wrote:It's amazing how the WSC SuperTests are not first class status but these matches are.

Does Wisden keep a record of them?

Haysman did come back to South Australia and made an ill-fated attempt to return to domestic cricket here didn't he?
I never saw the man bat - does anyone think he could have played tests for Australia?

And really how many of these blokes would've continued to play for Australia if they hadn't toured with the Rebels?

Dyson was finished as a test cricketer.
Hogan (selectors were preferring Bob Holland and weren't going to debut yet another man over 30).
Hogg was finished and probably knew it and decided to go for the money.
Hughes - there's no chance he would've played again. Border wouldn't have had it. A divisive and fragile character.
Yallop - yesterday's man

Obviously we missed the talents of Alderman, Rackemann and to a lesser extent Hohns as they all later played test cricket.

Rixon probably wouldn't have played ahead of Wayne Phillips (who considered going to South Africa) because of his batting.

But what of the others?

I'm only guessing (because I was too young at the time) that the major impact the absence of these players had was that it dropped the depth of shield cricket, something which has always been touted as a strength of our game.

Judging by the list of players I haven't mentioned, there were no stand-out players, so Australia might have continued to float around in mediocrity (as they were waybehind the other leading nations anyway) for longer than we did. Instead we hit rock bottom forcing the administrators to do something, rather than floating along thinking we'd come out the other side because these players would eventually click.

However, this is a fairly uninformed opinion - correct me if 'm wrong.

Also - a good book on the Australian tours (if you can still find it) is Cricket Rebels, by Chris Harte and Warwick Hadfield (just one of the 200 odd cricket books I have).

Snaggletooth Tiger wrote:

spell_check wrote:It's amazing how the WSC SuperTests are not first class status but these matches are.

Does Wisden keep a record of them?

No.

Think it's fair to say that these players weren't treated as harshly in latter years as it seemed they might be at the time.
Aldermann came back to be the star of the '89 Ashes tour and also be a very underated cricket commentator in my book and Trevor Hohns not only saw national duty, he ended up becoming the chairman of selectors!!

At the time, Haysman and Faulkner were promising first class players.

Steve Smith had some success as a one day batsman. Played three tests on the 1984 West Indies tour. No doubt he would have improved on his test average of 8.

Shipperd, Taylor and McCurdy were pushing for test spots as well.

Alderman, Maguire and Rackemann would no doubt have strengthened the depleted bowling stocks.