In October 1982, a representative team of Sri Lankan

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

players undertook a so-called "Rebel tour" to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, to play a series of matches against the South African team colloquially called the 'cuckoo tour'. At the time, the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are List of International Cricket Council members, 108 national associations, with 12 List of Internation ...

(ICC) had placed a moratorium on international cricket teams making tours of South Africa, due to the nation's government policy of

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

, leaving South Africa with no international competition.

Background

During the 1970s and 1980s, due to the boycott of South Africa by global sporting bodies, the

blocked any official cricket tours to South Africa. This led to a number of so-called "rebel" tours, where individual players were contracted to tour as part of unofficial representative teams. The first such tour recently took place with an English team touring the country. Heads of the South African Cricket Union, Ali Bacher and Geoff Dakin, approached Sri Lankan cricketer

Tony Opatha Antony Ralph Marinon Opatha (5 August 1947 – 11 September 2020) was a Sri Lankan cricketer. A right-arm medium pace bowler, he played five One Day Internationals at the 1975 and 1979 Cricket World Cups. Educated at St. Peter's College ...

in July 1982 to negotiate organising a tour by Sri Lankan players. In September

Colin Rushmere Colin George Rushmere (16 April 1937 – 20 January 2017) was a South African conservationist and cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1957 to 1965. Cricket career Rushmere made his first-class debut for Eastern Province against Orang ...

, a South African lawyer, flew to

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

with 14 contracts for the players of a team Opatha had assembled in secret. A month later the Sri Lankan team was touring Zimbabwe and Rushmere visited

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

to confirm the participation of

Roy Dias Roy Luke Dias (born 18 October 1952) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer who played Tests and ODIs for Sri Lanka. An elegant and stylish right-handed batsman he played 20 Test matches and became the first Sri Lankan to hit 1,000 Test runs. He ...

and Duleep Mendis. However both were unable to join the tour team to South Africa as their passports were held by the team manager. When news of the tour broke, the Board of Cricket Control for Sri Lanka (BCCSL) issued 25-year bans to all the tour players. Opatha, who was team manager as well as a player, named the team the 'AROSA Sri Lankan XI'. The 'ARO' standing for the first three initials in his name; Antony Ralph Opatha and the 'SA' standing for South Africa. Sri Lanka were still an emerging team at the time, having only been granted Test status earlier in 1982, and were not regarded as being in the same league as the South Africans. The tour of a Sri Lankan team, the first ever by a non-white team, was a milestone which showed the world that South Africa (who previously blocked an English team touring in 1968 for containing just one non-white player) was reforming.

The tour

The tour was a disaster for the AROSA Sri Lankan team, failing to win a single game. They were soundly beaten in all their one-day and "test" matches against the South Africans. Sri Lankan managed only to draw three matches against provincial teams, with the remainder also being defeats. The team was not helped by the absence of stronger performing players like Dias and Mendis and the underperformance of star spin bowler

Ajit de Silva Ginigalgodage Ramba Ajit de Silva (born 12 December 1952), or Ajit de Silva, is a former Sri Lankan international cricketer, who played four Test matches and six One Day Internationals for Sri Lanka, bowling accurate slow left arm spin. Inte ...

who struggled with stress and had a breakdown on tour. ;First ODI ---- ;Second ODI ---- ;Third ODI ---- ;First Test ---- ;Fourth ODI ---- ;Second Test

Aftermath

The 14 players were given a 25-year ban, depriving Sri Lankan cricket of a large amount of player talent. Despite earning enough money from the tour to settle down and build houses, most faced social stigma and unemployment afterwards. In 1991 Sri Lankan president

Ranasinghe Premadasa Sri Lankabhimanya Ranasinghe Premadasa ( si, රණසිංහ ප්‍රේමදාස ''Raṇasiṃha Premadāsa'', ta, ரணசிங்க பிரேமதாசா ''Raṇaciṅka Pirēmatācā''; 23 June 1924 – 1 May 1993) was t ...

lifted the bans on the players allowing many of the rebels to later hold key positions in cricket administration. One player,

Flavian Aponso Goniamalimage John Anthony Flavian Aponso (born 28 October 1952), commonly as Flavian Aponso, is a former Sri Lankan first class and Dutch ODI cricketer, who played five One-day Internationals for The Netherlands during the 1996 World Cup. He ...

, did play international cricket again at the

1996 Cricket World Cup The 1996 Cricket World Cup, also called the Wills World Cup 1996 after the Wills Navy Cut brand produced by tournament sponsor ITC, was the sixth Cricket World Cup organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was the second World Cu ...

for the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

(where he had moved after the rebel tour). The Sri Lankan tour is theorised to have helped pave the way for subsequent rebel tours of players from the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

a few years later by demonstrating it possible for a non-white cricket team to tour South Africa safely.

References

External links

Arosa Sri Lanka tour of South Africa 1982/83
at

Cricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arosa Sri Lanka cricket team in South Africa in 1982-83 Sri Lankan cricket tours of South Africa Sri Lanka in international cricket Cricket and apartheid Cricket controversies 1982 in cricket

Background

The tour

Aftermath

References

Further reading

External links