![]() ![]() And the book was also an opportunity to focus on “ordinary” people, on unsung heroes, on their tribulations and triumphs. I also thought it was important to tell the story while most of those who lived through it were were still with us. At a minimum, a public apology is due from the international tennis body and Wimbledon to the non-racial sport community, the 1971 tour players and Bobat. I wrote the book because I believe important social justice issues arose from the tour. The South African Council on Sport at 50: the fight for sports development is still relevant today The union’s goals were for its most promising players to compete in tournaments in Europe irrespective of “race” and nationality, to improve their games and be ambassadors for upholding equity and human dignity in sport. The other five were Hira Dhiraj, Alwyn Solomon, Oscar Woodman, Cavan Bergman and Bobat. The 1971 touring players were dubbed the “Dhiraj squad” after tennis champion Jasmat Dhiraj, a school teacher. In the context of apartheid, this must be contrasted with tennis played by white South Africans under the racially exclusively white tennis union. In 1973, the union was a founding affiliate of the South African Council on Sport, which popularised the slogan My book documents the historic 1971 first international tour by a squad of black South Africans who played tennis under the auspices of the non-racial Southern African Lawn Tennis Union. I am a scholar who has published numerous books and papers on the histories of black exclusion and organised black resistance during apartheid, and on social justice and transformation. I tell Bobat’s story in the new book Tennis, Apartheid and Social Justice. This was due to apartheid, and the collusion of the all-white tennis union in South Africa and the International Lawn Tennis Federation, with Wimbledon toeing the line. But in 1971 an 18-year-old university student, Hoosen Bobat from Durban, was excluded from achieving his dream of becoming the first black South African to play in the Wimbledon men’s junior tournament. Today the All England Lawn Tennis Club, hosts of the famous Wimbledon Championships, pledges to be diverse and inclusive. ![]()
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