1971–72 South African cricket season

This article is a review of the 1971-72 South African cricket season.

Honours

• Currie Cup – Transvaal
• Gillette Cup – Eastern Province

Events

The 1971-72 South African cricket season was the first one where the isolation placed on South African cricket as a result of the apartheid policies practised by the South African Government fully bit the men's game. The planned England tour of South Africa in 1968-69 had been cancelled in the wake of the D'Oliveira affair, when prime minister Vorster refused to allow black cricketer Basil D'Oliveira into the country to play for England. Australia had toured at the beginning of 1970, but the proposed tour to England later that year was called off by the Marylebone Cricket Club after it had come under immense pressure from the Government and protesters. The proposed tour by England to South Africa this season was also called off, which led to the South African Cricket Association to decide on 23 January to extend the Currie Cup, which had nearly been completed, to a full round of home and away matches. The proposed tour of Australia late in 1971-72 was in doubt, and was later called off, and the prospects of future international cricket looked grim. In the event, the tour by the New Zealand women's cricket team in 1971-72 proved to by the last official international cricket South Africa would play until the apartheid laws were repealed.

The beginning of isolation

New Zealand women tour

See also: New Zealand women in South Africa in 1971-72

Season details

See also: 1971-72 South African cricket season (chronological match reports)

Currie Cup

Section A

See also: Currie Cup Section A in 1971-72

Section B

See also: Currie Cup Section B in 1971-72

Gillette Cup

See also: Gillette Cup in 1971-72

Other first-class matches

See also: Non-Currie Cup first-class matches in South Africa in 1971-72

External links

• CricketArchive

Further reading

• Wisden Cricketers Almanack 1972