Cricketer, born in Cape Town, SW South Africa. As a Cape Coloured he had no prospects of first-class cricket within South Africa, but moved to England in 1960 to play league cricket in Lancashire, and eventually joined Worcestershire. Selected for England in 1966, he played 44 times as an aggressive middle-order batsman and useful change bowler, and scored five Test centuries. He was chosen for the 19689 England tour of South Africa, and the refusal of the South African government to admit him led to the cancellation of the tour and the subsequent exclusion of South Africa from international cricket.
Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, he was classified as 'coloured' under the apartheid regime, and hence barred from first-class cricket.
With the support of John Arlott, he emigrated to England in 1960, where he played first in the Central Lancashire League, for Middleton, before joining first-class county Worcestershire in 1964 and becoming a British citizen.
When England were due to play the 1968-1969 Test series in South Africa, he was initially kept out of the English team by the selectors for political reasons (South African president BJ Vorster had threatened to cancel the tour if D'Oliveira was included), but reinstated when another player, Warwickshire's Tom Cartwright, dropped out.
In recent years his health has waned.
In 2004, a perpetual trophy was struck for Test series between England and South Africa, and named the Basil D'Oliveira Trophy.
In 2004 a stand at Worcestershire's New Road ground was named in his honour.
Basil's son, Damian D'Oliveira, also played first-class cricket for Worcestershire.
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