In The Rebel Tours, Peter May and Tristan Holme tell the story of disgraced English cricketer Mike Gatting, who accepted a salary of £200000 from the apartheid government.
Read an extract from the book below:
For Mike Gatting, the justification was apparently quite simple. “I do not see myself as a traitor, because I am going off to earn a living by playing cricket in South Africa,” he said.“I think I’ve been a loyal person. I’ve given a lot of my life to cricket. It’s time for me to put my family first.”
It was an explanation the cricket world had heard before. Except that this time, ahead of the seventh rebel tour to South Africa, the English captain’s words rang particularly hollow.
Book details
Image courtesy Times Live
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January 13th, 2010 @13:14 #
A pertinent post, considering that the last test of England's tour to SA is starting shortly.
January 13th, 2010 @18:42 #
Very interesting. Although the tone of moral outrage rings a tad hollow. There's a long history of playing sport with (and taking money from) evil regimes, and there's no sign of this tradition stopping any time soon.
January 15th, 2010 @10:16 #
True, Helen. And what's an "evil regime" anyway? One that invades a sovereign country in the name of regime change and non-existent weapons of mass destruction, thereby causing the deaths of many thousands of innocent people?
January 15th, 2010 @13:06 #
Indeedy. I still think the book looks interesting (although local historians and sportswriters like Andre Odendaal, Luke Alfred (I think?) and Ashwin Desai have covered this sordid episode in considerable detail). But something about that tone of self-righteousness stuck in my craw.