Top five sports books to read over the monsoons

1. Peter Oborne – Basil D’Oliveira. Cricket and Conspiracy: The Untold Story

The controversy surrounding the Sochi games in recent weeks has ensured that the story of Basil D’Oliveira has never been more relevant. Brought up in the coloured district of Cape Town, South Africa, during the Apartheid era, ‘Dolly’ excelled at club cricket, before captaining the country’s non-white cricket team. With his path blocked by the racist agenda promoted by the country’s government, he seized an opportunity given to him by broadcaster John Arlott, who championed his cause.

D’Oliveira made the move to England, at first without his family, overcoming homesickness to progress to the Worcestershire first team, where his sheer weight of runs and frugal medium pace ensured it was not long before England came calling. This alone would provide more than enough content for a fascinating book, yet it was the events of 1968 which ensured D’Oliveira’s name became indelibly etched into diplomatic history. Scoring a magnificent 158 against Australia in the final test of the summer, Dolly was extraordinarily dropped for the subsequent tour of South Africa. When he was called up as a replacement for Tom Cartwright, South African PM John Vorster announced that the England side would no longer be welcomed. The MCC subsequently cancelled the tour, and South Africa did not host another official Test Match until the 1990s.

Peter Oborne expertly tells this astonishing story. His account is superbly researched, drawing upon interviews with many of the key protagonists, as well as D’Oliveira himself and his family. What is particularly impressive is that for all his courage, Oborne paints the man from the Cape Coast as an ordinary human being. He is adept at identifying his weaknesses as well as strengths, and the story is all the more rounded as a result.

The book contains an underlying, inadvertent message of the hope that sport can offer, and the good that it can do. It also reflects on sport’s ability to help to display the most cruel, and unjust inequalities. The story of Dolly is an astonishing one, brilliantly told, and with distinction far beyond its boundaries.