Sports Tours Of South Africa

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31363, 8 May 1967, Page 14

Sports Tours Of South Africa

Sir,—Mr Leggat’s repeated claim that the New Zealand Cricket Council has “never received any qualified invitation to tour South Africa, and our selectors have never been given any directive as to the racial composition of a team” is misleading. First, the careful wording leaves open the possibility that as a result of mutual understanding between the two cricket bodies, the South Africans could rely upon the New Zealanders’ discretion to see that no player of Indian or Maori descent was selected, and this is the way such delicate matters are usually handled. Second, the ban on mixed-race sports teams touring South Africa, first stated by Dr. Donges in 1956 and reiterated by his successors, makes it clear beyond doubt that when the New Zealand Cricket Council agreed to tour South Africa in the summer of 1961-62, its willingness to select white players only for the tour was clearly understood.—Yours, RICHARD THOMPSON. April 14, 1967. [Mr J. G. Leggat, chairman of the New Zealand Cricket Council, replies: “My comment was a plain statement of the factual position. It was not intended to be misleading nor, I believe, would it mislead anyone excepting those who might want to be misled. As to Mr Thompson’s use of the term ‘mutual understanding,’ if he means by that tacit agreement, then there was no such agreement and to the best of my knowledge never has been.”)