Lives in Cricket No 30 - MJK Smith

91 his discomfort with the regime as a reason for withdrawing from the next South African tour in 1968, still espoused the belief that sporting contact was better than isolation, but Mike Brearley was more obviously disturbed. As confidence in his batting eroded, so his enquiring mind had more time to worry about the social reality that surrounded him. Bob Barber was another who took time to find out more. With a Jamaican as his closest childhood friend, he recoiled at the sight of road signs depicting human beings as though they were cattle. On two occasions he ventured into one of the townships, once accompanied by Brearley. ‘We knocked on doors and introduced ourselves,’ he recalls, quietly acknowledging that they could have been in trouble if their visit had attracted more publicity. Triumphant in South Africa Diana and Barbara, in February 1965, with peaches brought back by Mike from his South African tour.