An excerpt from South Africa Diaries by James King

Shattered dreams

When I heard the news, on 11th November 1965, that Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) had declared UDI (unilateral declaration of independence) I was devastated. I had just been selected to represent the combined British tobacco companies in a party of cricketers to tour Rhodesia for six weeks. We were to be the guests of the Rhodesian tobacco farmers and would have, by all accounts, been royally accommodated and entertained. In addition the scheduled cricket matches would have been of a generally higher standard than our regular weekend encounters at club level. All expenses, including an allocation of ‘fun’ money for personal use, were to be provided by the British tobacco companies and our salaries would continue to be paid as though we were still making ‘cigarettes’. We had even been fitted for tour blazers, my bags were packed, and I nearly had one foot on the plane. Then, with one stroke of a pen, a young man’s dream of visiting Africa was shattered by a bunch of politicians on the other side of the world. [See Note 1]