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Of the South African cricketers who are presently in Adelaide, and who are soon to engage in the first Test of a much anticipated three-match series against Australia, how many would know about the man who helped to start it all?Of late, the South African minister for sport has made it a prerequisite of selection that the team should include six players of colour, but 50 years ago, no one with a hint of colour was allowed any nearer a Test match pitch than the cage - an enclosure that kept them segregated from their fellow white human beings.It has been a long, hard and often painful journey. Along the way, many fine cricketers of all backgrounds have had ambition thwarted. In the coming weeks, the joy on the face of Temba Bavuma when he makes a score, or Kagiso Rabada when he captures an Aussie wicket, will delight all but the most extreme of politically motivated white South Africans. Up above, looking down on it all, will be the pioneer of a movement that began in England in 1964 and, in his own case, reached a remarkable crescendo four years later.Basil DOliveira was a Cape Coloured cricketer of special ability who made his debut for Western Province in the non-white provincial tournament of the late 1940s at the age of 16. In a club match, he once made 225 out of a team total of 236 in little more than an hour. Legend has it that he hit 16 sixes, and a whole lot of fours from the other balls bowled. He bowled lively medium pace and ruthlessly exploited the uneven matting surfaces on which these ostracised lovers of the game found their fun. Unsurprisingly, the standard of cricket was pretty ordinary, but for a decade DOliveira stood above it, a colossus of the only game he could find in town. Frustrated beyond measure by the apartheid policy that drove the South Africa of the day, in 1959 he wrote to John Arlott, the liberally outspoken English broadcaster and journalist, and asked for help. Arlott was moved by DOliveiras story and helped to secure him a job as a pro in the Lancashire League for the 1960 season. After a dodgy start in cold weather and on damp pitches, he got the hang of things - so much so that he pipped a gifted fellow by the name of Garfield Sobers to the No. 1 spot in the leagues batting averages.The next season was barely any different, neither were the next two. In 1964, Worcester signed DOliveira on the back of Tom Graveneys kindly words and after a year of 2nd XI cricket while qualifying for British citizenship, he made his first hundred for the county on a tricky early-season pitch. The technique acquired on the matting back home and forensically close attention paid to the ball itself, rather than the peripherals, allowed DOliveira to finish eighth in the national batting averages as Worcestershire won their second consecutive championship title. To the astonishment of all those cricket people back home - whether black, white, brown, pink or just green with envy - in the summer of 1966, Dolly was picked for England.This was the moment he caught the eye of a young boy playing Test matches in the street outside his London home. Stumps were chalked on the wall and Basils first Test match hundred was replicated with that childs enthusiasm for thrilling back-foot drives and a generally fearless approach to the game. The following summer, DOliveira was in the team to face the Australians, and though England lost the first Test, he finished unbeaten with 87 in the second innings when England were bowled out for 253.I was that boy and I was fascinated by this man and by his bat, upon the face of which was a logo hitherto unseen. I scraped off the bat-makers logo on my own piece of willow and drew, or painted perhaps, my own version of the deep black triangle that pointed down to the bats toe. It was another ten years before I was to learn that this Duncan Fearnley bat was made by a man who existed, a former county cricketer who lived and breathed the game from his small factory in the middle of Worcester, which supplied handmade bats to some of the worlds finest players. I came to know Duncan well and was never to use any other make of equipment during my own playing days.None of us knew it at the time - and only a very few predicted the seismic knock-on effect of DOliveiras selection - but Englands scheduled tour to South Africa the following winter was already in jeopardy. John Vorster, the South African prime minister and an especially hardline apartheid activist, had already flagged his disapproval of DOliveiras presence in the England side around the corridors of Lords.Incredible as this now sounds, at a dinner before the second Test, to celebrate the 200th match between England and Australia, DOliveira was asked by the secretary of MCC, Billy Griffith, if he would declare himself unavailable for England and pledge allegiance to South Africa. Basil was furious. His 20-year story - from the rough grounds of the Cape, where there seemed to be no escape and no hope of fulfilment, to the lush turfs of Englands green and pleasant land - was on course for a happy ending. Griffith blew that notion apart, though not half so devastatingly as the selectors, who omitted DOliveira from the 200th Test. Try to imagine this moment for yourself; it is difficult, for it so beggars belief. Basil was dropped by England because the prime minister of South Africa said so.He returned to Worcester, but for a month or so couldnt make a run. Then, in a world of mysterious ways, a mysterious thing happened. With England still one down in the Ashes series, the selectors named a team, and unusually, with it were named three replacements. Two were bowlers, the third was DOliveira. The bowlers broke down, Roger Prideaux - who, incidentally, was later to emigrate to South Africa - pulled out of the match with a virus, and Basil was back.He made 158.Peter Oborne, in his award-winning Basil DOliveira: Cricket and Conspiracy, insists that it is the greatest innings ever played. After all, says Oborne, he played it against an attack comprising... Vorster and South African cricket at its most corrupt, supported by the weight of the British establishment...No other innings in test history has done anything like so much good.After a storm on the last day, England won the match when Derek Underwood brilliantly exploited the wet pitch. Dolly captured the breakthrough wicket and Deadly did the rest. DOliveiras innings made headlines all around the world, which meant there was a serious problem. Announce DOliveira in the team and risk the wrath of Vorster or leave him out and live with a backlash on the home front. The tour party to South Africa was to be named within a couple of days. The selectors, along with those in their corridors of power, debated long into the night. They announced a team without Dolly and tears fell down the cheeks of a gentle, delightful man.I say gentle, and by that I mean of nature. He sure loved a party, though by the time I roomed with him on a short tour to the Middle East in 1980, I was told he was easing off. He must have been something at his best then, because often was the occasion that he hit the hay as I was emerging from it. His stories were gold, his love of life irresistible. We laughed and laughed. He was still using a bat with the black-triangle motif, as by now was I - three stumps angled in a V and joined across the top by two bails. DOliveiras omission shook things up all right. The newspapers were on the warpath, the public werent far behind, and the MCC called a special general meeting. This national debate featured in both parliament and church. Three weeks passed before another mysterious thing happened. Tom Cartwright, a medium-fast bowler of note, was declared unfit for the tour. Basil, a batsman whose bowling was handy but no more, was chosen to replace him. Vorster went ballistic, calling it not the team of the MCC but of the anti-apartheid movement. He got a standing ovation at the National Party Congress. The tour was off.In 1970, South Africa were due in England. No chance. The anti-apartheid movements in Britain now had more than just scraps from which to feed. Peter Hain, a young liberal, led a campaign against the tour and the government stepped in to cancel South Africas invitation. A Rest of the World team, which included four Springboks, came instead. Though Australia went to South Africa in 1969-70, the return visit, in 1971-72, was aborted. Another Rest of the World team replaced that tour.For 20 years South Africa remained in isolation. The pain was clear and present. Names that might have adorned the history books, names of all origin and background, were denied. It had taken the sporting authorities 75 years to make a stand against an evil discrimination and a relatively small group of sportsmen suffered for it. After DOliveira many a South African cricketer came to reside in and play for England. They say sport and politics should not mix. Sport and politics are joined at the hip.Basil passed away on a November day five years ago. He was 80 they say, which tidies up the uncertainty about his age. He is missed around Worcester every day. Indeed, he is missed everywhere. He was brave, he was feisty and he was strong; he was young, gifted and he was coloured. And he knew he was right, so he blazed a trail that eventually helped to change the order of the world. Fabulously, he was named one of South Africas ten cricketers of the 20th century. He was made CBE in England in 2005 and has a stand in his name at New Road, Worcester. Series between England and South Africa are now played for the Basil DOliveira Trophy.Had the ministry of sport insisted on six players of colour in Basils day, he would have been a shoo-in and played alongside luminaries such as Roy McLean and Johnny Waite, Graeme Pollock, Barry Richards and Mike Procter. As it happened, it was Geoffrey Boycott and John Edrich, Ray Illingworth, Alan Knott and John Snow who became his team-mates and friends. Not one of them would have a bad word to say about this man who crossed a Rubicon and inspired a generation.The quota system, as it has been called, is not universally popular because there is potential in it to compromise the quality of the team. It is important for South African sport in general that heroes are born out of winning teams. But no one can argue about the thinking or the direction. All Basil would ask is that it is applied with common sense and fairness to one and all. 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Nottinghamshire 162 for 7 (Patel 58, Read 35*) beat Yorkshire 160 for 7 (Head 40, Lyth 39, Gurney 3-16) by three wicketsScorecard Nottinghamshire may be looking over their shoulders somewhat anxiously in the Championship but their white-ball game is gathering momentum, so much so that their place in the quarter-finals of the NatWest Blast is all but assured with two matches remaining.Their last 10 matches in this competition have included four washouts, more than any other side, yet they have won all of the other six, this one added to the sequence with two balls to spare.After Yorkshire had posted an under-par 160, which was in no small part down to the disciplined bowling of Harry Gurney and Luke Fletcher in particular, Samit Patels 58, the highest score of the night, was the crucial innings.Even then, however, Patels dismissal in the final over after two Liam Plunkett dot balls caused nerves to jangle before Chris Read drew a deep breath and cracked the winning boundary through square cover.It left Yorkshires qualification hanging by a thread, with the probability that they will need to win their three remaining matches to be sure to go through, and Alex Lees, in his first season as captain, was in no mood to take the rough with the smooth, claiming that a contentious umpires decision cost them the match.It came in the fifth over of Nottinghamshires chase for their 161-run target, when umpire Martin Saggers called no ball for a fielding irregularity, namely that Yorkshire had one too many players outside the circle.Plunkett was bowling to Dan Christian, who ran a single off the no ball. Greg Smith then hit a four from the free hit before Christian swung through the last ball of the over - the extra one in Leess eyes - to score six.We could have done with 10 more runs with the bat and saved 10 in the field, and then wed have won, Lees said. But even with that score its boiled down to a terrible decision by the umpire. I dont know how, from 40 yards away, you can tell if someone is in or out of the ring, and its cost us 12 runs.It was judged that I was out of the ring. I wasnt out of the ring, and it cost us 12 runs. I think even if someone is out by a yard, can you see that from 40 yards? He said that he watched the bowler from his run-up all the way and said he watched me all the way.I dont think hes doing his job properly if hes looking at me when the bowlers bowling. I dont how he can track it. I dont know how he can track all seven players in the ring.Sometimes in cricket they go your way, and unfortunately it went for Notts tonight.Although emotions run high sometimes in cricket, the comments by Lees were unwise and it would be a surprise if he does not have to account for them with the authorities, given their tough stance on dissent.Mistakes are sometimes made. Later in the innings, for example, Nottinghamshires Steven Mullaney had grounds to question how he could be given run out with the naked eye - again by Saggers - when he appeared to have beaten Steve Pattersons direct hit tto the non-strikers end when Patel sent him back.dddddddddddd.That could have been a turning point. At that moment, Nottinghamshire were 59 short of their target, with 53 balls left and some restrictive overs by the Yorkshire spinners, Adil Rashid and Azeem Rafiq, seemed to be tipping the balance in favour of the visiting team.In the event, Patel and Read stepped on the accelerator when Patterson and Tim Bresnan returned, plundering 39 runs in three overs so that three runs were needed off the final six deliveries, in which Nottinghamshire were always likely to get at least one hit off the square.Read finished on 35 not out and Greg Smiths 32 off as many balls was essential in providing an anchor after Michael Lumb and Riki Wessels failed. Yorkshires fielding, on the whole, was excellent.Yorkshire, who had won their last three matches batting first, again backed themselves to set a target they could defend and although Lees was an early casualty, Adam Lyth was in superb touch, the format requiring a change of gear from his double century against Surrey in the Championship but inhibiting him not one jot.Lyth raced to 39 off 20 deliveries, the last 18 of them coming in one dreadful over from Nottinghamshire captain Christian that also conceded five wides. But then Patel, whose own opening over had cost 12 runs, had some revenge when Lyth tried to clear the rope again in the seventh over but, with the field now back, found Imran Tahir on the cover boundary.The left-handed England batsman, whose form this season is being talked about in selectors meetings again, gave way to Travis Head, the 22-year-old Australian left-hander, whose debut innings for Yorkshire looked to have set up his new side for a total perhaps in the 180 to 220 range.Head, who made a T20 hundred off 53 balls for Jason Gillespies Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash last December, introduced himself by hitting four sixes in a 25-ball blitz that brought him 40 runs, doing most of the damage between the 10th and 12th overs as he launched in turn into Imran Tahir, Patel and Mullaney.He had some luck. Dropped by Patel at long-on off Mullaney on 30, he was fortunate twice more when steepling top-edges fell safely to ground. His luck ran out when the excellent Gurney returned to have him caught at long-on by Riki Wessels.Heads partnership with Kane Williamson added 67 in 42 deliveries but with the Australians dismissal in 14th over went Yorkshires momentum. Indeed, there were only two boundaries scored in the last eight overs of the innings and just 38 runs added after Head was out.Nottinghamshires bowling was top class. Mullaney dismissed Williamson when a paddle-sweep from the Kiwi found Imran Tahir lurking round the corner and both Gurney and Fletcher did their jobs superbly at the death, giving away only 13 runs between them in the final three overs. Yet Yorkshires batting lacked something in finesse. ' ' '