Owen Leslie Williams (born 8 April 1932) is a former

South African __NOTOC__ South African may relate to: * The nation of South Africa * South African Airways * South African English * South African people * Languages of South Africa * Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the Afric ...

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 ...

er. Williams was a right-handed batsman who bowled slow left-arm orthodox. He was born at

Claremont Claremont may refer to: Places Australia *Claremont, Ipswich, a heritage-listed house in Queensland * Claremont, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart * Claremont, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth ** Claremont Football Club, West Australian Footba ...

, Cape Province. Williams made his first-class debut in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

for

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family an ...

in 1967. He later made two further first-class appearances in South Africa for Western Province, against

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

in December 1971 and Natal in January 1972. In his three first-class matches, he took a total of 5 wickets at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

of 36.60, with best figures of 2/36. With the bat, he scored 21 runs at a batting average of 10.50, with a high score of 9

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

. In an attempt to make South African cricket more acceptable to world opinion and to ensure the tour to Australia in 1971-72 went ahead, the South African cricket authorities offered Williams and another non-white player,

Dik Abed Sulaiman "Dik" Abed (22 October 1944 – 19 January 2018) was a cricketer. Born in South Africa, he played professionally in England and later captained the Netherlands. Life and career Abed was born to a Cape Malay family in District Six, Cape ...

, a place on the touring team. However, not only did the South African government refuse to allow the initiative to proceed, but Williams and Abed also refused to be a part of what they considered a token gesture.

References

External links

Owen Williams
at

ESPNcricinfo 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 ...

Owen Williams
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Owen 1932 births Living people Cricketers from Cape Town South African cricketers Warwickshire cricketers Western Province cricketers