Captained by Jamaican batsman Lawrence Rowe, two unauthorised West Indies XI tours of apartheid South Africa in 1982-83 and 1983-84 led to lifetime bans by the WICB and the social ostracism of all 18 squad members across the Caribbean.
South Africa had been excluded from world cricket since 1970; promoters paid Caribbean players large sums to break the boycott.
Rowe agreed to captain in 1982 and recruited a 16-man squad; the WICB and Caribbean governments learned of the tour only when the squad arrived.
The two rebel tours, organised by South African promoters with the cooperation of Lawrence Rowe, ran in January-February 1983 and again in late 1983. The squad — including Test stars Colin Croft, Sylvester Clarke, Bernard Julien, Alvin Greenidge, Alvin Kallicharran, Franklyn Stephenson and Ezra Moseley — were paid in dollars at a multiple of WICB rates. The first 'Test' series was drawn 1-1 and the ODI series lost 4-2; the cricket itself was incidental. The reaction at home was savage. Caribbean prime ministers, led by Jamaica's Edward Seaga, denounced the tour. The WICB imposed life bans on every member of the squad — bans that were not lifted until 1989. Several players received public death threats; Rowe was reportedly chased from his Kingston home and lived in semi-hiding for years. Stephenson and Moseley emigrated; Rowe eventually moved to Florida; Croft and Clarke went to county cricket and never returned. The bans cost West Indies cricket arguably its second-string Test team for the rest of the decade and remain the most racially charged sports boycott story of the apartheid era.
Rowe agrees to captain in 1982
Squad of 18 named
First tour Jan-Feb 1983
WICB imposes life bans
Second tour winter 1983-84
1982
Rowe recruits squad in secret
Jan-Feb 1983
First tour: Test series drawn 1-1
1983
WICB imposes life bans
Winter 1983-84
Second tour
1989
Bans formally lifted
“I am sorry. I would not do it again.”
“We have been ostracised. We have been called traitors. We did it for our families.”
Bans were lifted in 1989; only Stephenson and a handful of others ever played international cricket again.
The most painful chapter of the 1980s rebel-tour era — players banned for life and ostracised across home societies that had defined themselves against apartheid.
Rowe lived under threat for years and only returned publicly to Jamaica in 2011, after offering an apology. The tours remain the defining stain on Caribbean cricket of the era.
England
1932-08-12
In August 1932 the MCC selectors confirmed Douglas Jardine as England's captain for the 1932-33 tour of Australia, a decision contested at the highest levels of English cricket and one that — combined with Plum Warner's appointment as tour manager — would set the conditions for the Bodyline series.
England
1934-03-21
On 21 March 1934 Douglas Jardine wrote to The Cricketer that he had 'neither the desire nor the intention' of playing in the upcoming home Ashes series. The announcement, taken as a quiet resignation, removed the architect of Bodyline from the field before Australia returned to England — a precondition Australia's Board had implicitly demanded.
England / Gloucestershire
1937-11-15
In November 1937 Wally Hammond — the leading professional batsman of his era — was accepted by MCC as an amateur, opening the door to the England captaincy he received six months later for the 1938 Ashes. The change crystallised inter-war debates about the amateur-professional divide and the unwritten rule that England's captain be amateur.