The Freedom of the City of Worcester will be posthumously awarded to Worcestershire CCC legend Basil D’Oliveira CBE, in a red carpet ceremony at the Guildhall on Friday evening.
The Mayor Of Worcester, Councillor Jabba Riaz, will present the Freedom of the City Certificate to Basil’s son, Shaun D’Oliveira.
A permanent inscribed plaque will be unveiled in the Guildhall in honour of Basil who played for Worcestershire for 15 years before becoming Head Coach.
The accolade will be made 50 years after the so-called ‘D’Oliveira Affair’ which prompted a sporting boycott of apartheid South Africa.
Councillor Riaz said: “Basil D’Oliveira became a symbol of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, linking Worcestershire cricket to international politics in the process.
“Millions of people around the world owe him a debt of gratitude.
“It will be a great honour to posthumously award the Freedom of the City of Worcester to his family.”
In 1968 the England team was due to play in a tour of South Africa. D’Oliveira was initially not selected because of South Africa’s apartheid rules.
D’Oliveira was then called up to the England squad after an injury to Tom Cartwright but South Africa responded by cancelling the tour.
The D’Oliveira Affair was a watershed in the sporting boycott of apartheid South Africa.
It led to a dramatic turn in international opinion against the South African regime and is credited as being a landmark on the road to the eventual fall of apartheid in the early 1990s.
