Pitch Battles: Sport, Racism and Resistance

The 'Stop the Seventy Tour campaign led to the cancellation of the all-white 1969/70 South African rugby and cricket tours to Britain, presaging white South Africa's expulsion from the Olympics and the end of apartheid sport. Lord Hain and André Odendaal's book, Pitch Battles, explores the themes of sport, globalization, and resistance from the deep past to the present day, revealing how sport should never be divorced from politics or society's values.

Format: Hardback
Length: 480 pages
Publication date: 08 December 2020
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield International

“There will be a black Springbok over my dead body.” — Dr Danie Craven,President of the South African Rugby Board,1969

Just a year after the controversial DOliveira affair, the organized disruption of the all-white 1969/70 South African rugby and cricket tours to Britain represented a significant challenge to apartheid politics. Led by future cabinet minister Peter Hain, the 'Stop the Seventy Tour campaign brought about the cancellation of both tours, presaging white South Africa's expulsion from the Olympics and the end of apartheid sport altogether. With his brand of attention-grabbing, direct action sports protest, the 19-year-old Hain emerged as a hero to some and an enemy to others. Now, reflecting on these experiences with fifty years of hindsight, Lord Hain, together with South Africa's foremost sports historian and fellow anti-apartheid activist André Odendaal, shows how decades of relentless international and domestic campaigning for equality led to a Springbok team captained by black athlete Siya Kolisi winning the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

Interspersing a wide range of examples with personal testimony, Pitch Battles explores the themes of sport, globalization, and resistance from the deep past to the present day. Published in the same year as the Stop The Tour documentary from acclaimed director Louis Myles, this compelling story of sacrifice, struggle, and triumph reveals how sport should never be divorced from politics or society's values.

Weight: 860g
Dimension: 167 x 241 x 47 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781786615220