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Cricketers visit Dartmoor Prison

Ex-England, England and County Cricketers visit Dartmoor Prison

News 1968 Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for South West Film and Television Archive

Overview

Ex-England, England and County cricketers visit Dartmoor Prison with officials from the newly formed Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB) as well as the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Players include England and Yorkshire cricketers Fred Trueman and Geoffrey Boycott, England and Kent wicket-keeper Alan Knott, England and Northamptonshire batsman, Colin Milburn, Nottinghamshire’s Mike ‘Pasty’ Harris and Somerset’s Brian Langford.

At the time, the England Cricket Team was in the mire of the D’Oliveira Affair. A proposed MCC tour by England of South Africa was about to be called off because the apartheid regime was refusing to allow ex-South African and England player Basil D’Oliveira to participate on the grounds of his race. The decision by the South African government was effectively the beginning of a sporting ban on South Africa and no official teams were to tour until after Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in 1993. Fred Trueman was on the Yorkshire County Cricket Club Board when Geoffrey Boycott was sacked in 1983. In a backlash Trueman was dismissed and relations between the two players were only re-established in 2000.