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Garfield Sobers, captain of the West Indies cricket team and one of the most prominent cricketers in the world, outraged many in the Caribbean in September 1970 when he took part in a friendly double-wicket tournament at Salisbury Sports Club in Rhodesia (renamed Zimbabwe in 1980), a country in southern Africa that was unrecognised internationally because of its mostly white minority government. The resulting furore nearly caused him to lose the captaincy, and threatened the unity of the West Indies team itself. Sobers was captain of the "Rest of the World" team that toured England between May and August 1970 in place of the South Africa national team, whose proposed tour had been cancelled by English cricketing authorities because of apartheid. He accepted an invitation to the Rhodesian competition from Eddie Barlow, a South African member of the Rest of the World team, and arrived in Salisbury on the day of the event. To ecstatic applause from the mostly white spectators, Sobers partnered South African Test captain Ali Bacher in the tournament, and said afterwards that he had enjoyed himself, though he and Bacher had not won. Having established a personal rapport with the Rhodesian Prime Minister, Ian Smith, Sobers left the next day and returned home to Barbados. Many in the West Indies were appalled by Sobers' actions, and when he subsequently made positive comments about Smith, Rhodesia and white South African cricketers in press interviews and announced his intention to play more cricket in Rhodesia, the vitriol intensified, with one Antiguan newspaper branding him a "white black man".〔 A number of prominent figures, including entire political parties, called for Sobers to be stripped of the West Indies cricket captaincy. Guyanese Prime Minister Forbes Burnham barred Sobers from Guyana, and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India announced that if Sobers remained in the team, India would pull out of its upcoming tour of the West Indies. Sobers argued that as a "professional cricketer and a sportsman, not a politician",〔 he had done nothing wrong. The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) contemplated whether it would be better to cancel all matches in Guyana or to sack Sobers; neither prospect was attractive. The crisis ended when Eric Williams, the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, wrote a letter of apology for Sobers to sign, which was relayed to the WICB and several governmental bodies in late October 1970. This was accepted, and the incident was soon largely forgotten. Sobers regained his overwhelming popularity with West Indian cricket fans, continued as team captain until 1972 and retired from cricket two years later. He thereafter retained his stance that politics should not interfere with sport. His Rhodesian visit has been cited as precursoring the South African rebel tours controversy of the 1980s. ==Background== Garfield Sobers, from the Caribbean island of Barbados, was widely regarded as one of the world's finest cricketers from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, and is placed by many among the best to ever play the sport.〔 An all-rounder, he made his debut for the West Indies cricket team, the multinational side representing the Caribbean in international cricket, at the age of 17 in 1954. He was a regular member of the team for the next two decades. Sobers set a then-world record highest individual score of 365 runs not out during a Test match against Pakistan in 1958, and became captain of the West Indies team six years later. In domestic first-class cricket, he was one of the first West Indians to play abroad, representing South Australia and Nottinghamshire during the 1960s and 1970s. His batting, bowling and fielding were all regarded as excellent by contemporaries, but his decision making and tactics were occasionally criticised.〔 Rhodesia was an unrecognised state in southern Africa, run by a predominantly white minority government headed by Prime Minister Ian Smith. Taking exception to the UK's insistence on majority rule as a condition for independence, Smith's colonial administration had unilaterally declared independence in 1965 following a long dispute over the terms. International uproar and the first ever United Nations economic sanctions had ensued, making Rhodesia deeply isolated. This quarantine variously extended to sports. Rhodesian athletes, including the 1968, 1972 and 1976 Olympic squads (which were racially integrated), were barred from international competition on political grounds. Rhodesian cricket and rugby were not greatly affected as these sports largely operated in tandem with South Africa. The Rhodesia cricket team, for example, took part in the annual Currie Cup tournament against South African provincial sides. As world opinion hardened against South Africa during the 1960s because of apartheid, international governing bodies in various sports introduced boycotts of South African teams and athletes.〔 Until 1976, non-whites were legally barred from the South Africa cricket team, and, as the law required matches to be racially homogenous, this also applied to visiting squads. The South African government provoked overseas ire in 1968 when it refused entry to the England cricket team because its proposed tour party included Basil D'Oliveira, a Cape Coloured. Amid the ensuing scandal, Marylebone Cricket Club (which then governed English cricket) called off the tour. Two years later, a tour of England by the South Africa cricket team was cancelled by the English Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB) at a week's notice following public protests and immense pressure from the UK government.〔 South Africa did not play another official international cricket match until 1991. The TCCB sought to recoup the lost revenues for the 1970 season by hastily organising a replacement series of matches between England and a "Rest of the World" team comprising leading cricketers from around the world. This squad, described by the leading cricket publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'' as "one of the strongest teams ever to take the field", included five South Africans, five West Indians (including Sobers, as captain), two Pakistanis and a player each from Australia and India. It defeated England 4–1 over a tour lasting from late June to late August 1970.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Salisbury Sports Club tournament in 1970」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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