Just before I indulged in some cricket nostalgia, I finally got round to viewing the Youtube hit of the racist outburst of foul and bitter woman on a South London tram. Her rambling diatribe culminated in the very essence of ignorance and racial intolerance, “You’re not British: you’re black.”
I am not sure there could be a greater contrast on the spectrum of human intelligence and understanding than between that harridan and the gentle rythmic prose of John Arlott.
He was an old-fashioned liberal with a generally conservative outlook but also with progressive views on the need for social progress in Britain on class and colour. His unyielding stand against the hateful values of apartheid, tied to the principles of cricket and fair play, during the D’Oliveira affair pricked the conscience of the nation. Britain had to decide in its post colonial era whether it was acceptable to judge people by the colour of their skin and being mainly a people of discerning outlook, we chose to reject discrimination.
Of course, prejudice will never be eradicated but John Arlott was a voice of rare eloquence and persuasiveness at a pivotal moment in our history.
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