Cricketers visit Dartmoor Prison

From the collection of

The Box
Established in 1992, the South West Film & Television Archive collection spans from 1893 to the present day containing more than 250,000 items. Formed from a variety of depositors, including broadcast news and programmes material from the Westward and TSW archive. In 2018 the archive collection transferred to The Box in Plymouth.

Cricketers visit Dartmoor Prison


Ex-England, England and County Cricketers visit Dartmoor Prison

Ex-England, England and County cricketers visit Dartmoor Prison with officials from the newly formed Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB) as well as the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Players include England and Yorkshire cricketers Fred Trueman and Geoffrey Boycott, England and Kent wicket-keeper Alan Knott, England and Northamptonshire batsman, Colin Milburn, Nottinghamshire's Mike ‘Pasty' Harris and Somerset's Brian Langford.

At the time, the England Cricket Team was in the mire of the D'Oliveira Affair. A proposed MCC tour by England of South Africa was about to be called off because the apartheid regime was refusing to allow ex-South African and England player Basil D'Oliveira to participate on the grounds of his race. The decision by the South African government was effectively the beginning of a sporting ban on South Africa and no official teams were to tour until after Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1993. Fred Trueman was on the Yorkshire County Cricket Club Board when Geoffrey Boycott was sacked in 1983. In a backlash Trueman was dismissed and relations between the two players were only re-established in 2000.


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