Ali Bacher
Ali Bacher: From Cricket Captain of South Africa During Apartheid to Pioneer of Non-racial Cricket
Summary
Judge Dennis Davis interviews Ali Bacher about his life and work in the the world of Cricket, both on and off the field.
Ali Bacher
Aron “Ali” Bacher was born to Lithuanian-Jewish parents who emigrated to South Africa. He is an administrator of the United Cricket Board of South Africa and is best known for organizing the South African rebel tours in the early 1980s, when South Africa was isolated from the rest of the cricketing world due to apartheid-related sanctions. Post-Mandela he reinvented himself as South Africa’s cricket supremo when the previously separate Black and white associations combined to set up the United Cricket Board. Bacher’s reward came when his country marched back onto the international scene at the 1992 World Cup. He remained at the helm for the best part of a decade, before stepping aside to lead the organization of the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Ali studied at the University of the Witwatersrand and is married to Shira Teeger, with whom he has two daughters and one son.
Judge Dennis Davis
Dennis Davis is a judge of the High Court of South Africa and judge president of the Competition Appeals Court of South Africa. He has held professorial appointments at the University of Cape Town and University of the Witwatersrand, as well as numerous visiting appointments at Cambridge, Harvard, New York University, and others. He has authored eleven books, including Lawfare: Judging Politics in South Africa.
Only once. We were playing, for Balfour Park, a certain club in Johannesburg, I won’t mention the club. And we gave them a good thrashing, good thrashing. And the change rooms were right next to each other. And the captain of this particular team started to spear anti-Semite comments and the norm in lead Cricket then that at the end of a game, it’s protocol, the visiting team go to the home team clubhouse and have a drink with their beer and they go home. And I told our team, “You’re not going there tonight.” And oh, we didn’t go there that night. And one of the players in that team, I phoned the next morning and I said, “I want you to know why we didn’t come up.” That was, you know, the only point. And I must tell you another story, which is important. You know, when I was picked for South African captain, the convenor selectors was Arthur Coy from Port Elizabeth. He was Arthur Coy, he changed his religion. That’s what he’s called.