South African cricket team of the '60s and '70s whitewashed from the record books DIFFERENT BALL GAME: Former South African cricketer Barry Richards in action on the green at Brookwater. BARRY Richards was one of cricket's finest batsmen but he was never consumed by the memorabilia side of the game - with one sentimental exception. A photo of Richards with Sir Donald Bradman, complete with Bradman's signature, was a personal favourite. It was a poignant moment when he gave it to the Kingsmead Ground in Durban, the venue which saw him blossom from a precocious teenager into a sublime batting star of his generation, despite playing only four Tests before his career was dramatically ended by the apartheid bans in 1970. This feature was originally published in The Courier-Mail in November 2012 As a bar-room eye-catcher, that photo was hard to beat - cricket's finest batsman of all time with one of the greatest batsmen of his era. But it disappeared. Richards later found it stashed low down behind a bucket in the ground's public bar with water and beer splashing around it. About that time, the former Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald Majola, sacked last month after being found guilty of taking kickbacks, was ordering a nationwide purge of photos and honour boards featuring any reference to apartheid era when South Africa was a whites-only cricket side. So the mighty South African side that crushed Australia 4-0 in 1970 - one of the greatest teams ever, featuring Richards, Graeme Pollock and Mike Procter - unofficially became, in Majola's eyes at least, The Team That Never Was. Majola even visited Lord's and demanded all Test records involving pre-1970 South African names be erased from Wisden. There was also talk he wanted South African names off the most famous honour boards in cricket in the Lord's dressingrooms. He was bluntly told "it was not as if these Tests were not played - the records stand" and that while South Africa was free to call itself whatever it wanted (Proteas now instead of Springboks), history was history and Test records were as unchangeable as the alphabet. Pollock was left to keep his gargantuan Test batting average of 60.97 but it was cold comfort. To him, the issue was far deeper than statistics. "It is disappointing," Pollock told The Courier-Mail from his home in Johannesburg yesterday. We were in isolation for 22 years and they have tried to get rid of all the statistics pre-1992, which they did not manage to do. The guys I played with have not been given any opportunities. It is so disappointing because we didn't make the laws of the country. We tried pretty hard to show what we thought of the (apartheid) laws. We actually had a walk-off at Newlands in protest. Come to the Wanderers ground (in Johannesburg) and along the passage into the main long room (and) there is nothing that relates to the era I was involved in. The passageway once contained a famous honours board with names of all the Transvaal players to be selected for their country, plus photographs of touring sides and local players. But the South African administration said that because the teams were not fully representative of South African society, they must come down. "It is a known fact that they think you were part of the apartheid era and, 'what did you do . . . you made a lot of money while we were isolated for 22 years when no one else made any money'," Pollock said. There are a whole lot of guys like Barry, Mike Procter, Clive Rice and myself who are not required because of the thinking of the current board. We have lived with this. I am 68. I would love to make a meaningful contribution to South African cricket but I have not been given permission to do so and neither has Barry and Proccy. There is no Graeme Pollock Stand in South Africa, or a Mike Procter or Barry Richards Medal for South Africa's most exceptional player. The Kingsmead Mynahs club, which supported Richards in the 1970s, asked if it could name a room after him and put his name on a door, but they were banned from doing so. The numbers system on South African Test gear starts not from the first Test they played against England in 1889 but from the first Test played after the apartheid era ended 103 years later, against the West Indies in Barbados. Richards has not been invited to any South African cricket function in two decades. It's a shattering thing, but what can you do? Richards said in Brisbane as he prepares for commentary duties with ABC Radio at today's first Test. People in Australia would not understand it. There is absolutely nothing to even say we played there, which is disappointing. That is how it is and it is not going to change. People have just sort of moved on. It is almost like, 'ho hum, who are they?' We get more credit for our careers when we visit England or Australia. One thing that I was disappointed with was that we were not awarded numbers when they came in. I can understand people's frustrations but we didn't bring in apartheid and our walk-off protest came when the nationalist government was in full swing. Though much of this issue seems black and white in every way, there are shades of grey. There are some observers who would love to see the past greats honoured, but accept that there must be innocent victims as South Africa looks forward to a brighter future rather than dwell on a painful past. There are many white South Africans who do not enjoy looking at the old all-white photos of South African rugby and cricket teams. There are those who concede the more the greats of that era are lauded the more offensive it is to the black players who missed out. This, of course, is little compensation to the stars of the '70s who copped it at both ends. They lost the best years of their careers due to a political system they did not support and against which some protested. Now they are seen as poster boys for that generation and those posters have been ripped down. Pollock is greatly relieved and encouraged by the fact that the current South African Test team is free of the extreme pressures of the racial quota system that effectively ended his reign as national selection convenor. In 2002, Pollock was ordered by the powers above him to change South Africa's team for a Test against Australia in Sydney, replacing the white Jacques Rudolph with batsman Justin Ontong. Pollock was expected to stay silent on the issue, but his conscience got the better of him. I remember going to a function and coming home at 10pm and there was a phone call from our coach, Graham Ford, who said the team had been changed. I said to the authorities, 'what about the poor guy you have promoted?' Justin Ontong had just failed twice against NSW in Sydney. He (an official) asked me what form was and I said, 'if you don't know that, I am wasting my time'. When I was a selector, team selection was interfered with on numerous occasions when they were not happy with the number of non-white players in the team. I got booted off the selection panel in the aftermath of what happened in Sydney. The day after, I was on ABC radio - I think with Kerry O'Keeffe - and the first question was about a release saying the side that played, was that the original one chosen. I was the one selector over there and I said it was not the original side. That was the end of my career as a South African administrator. I broke a confidence. But I just couldn't go along in saying it was the original side. I was also on Channel 9. I played against Richie Benaud and Ian Chappell. I didn't have it in me to tell them a lie. If I must be booted out then so be it, but it was more important for my integrity not to hide things that needed to be brought out. In recent times, I don't believe there has been any interference because everyone is good enough to be chosen on merit. That is why they have been successful. They are a good bunch, but in the early days things were difficult and it played a part in disrupting the spirit of the side. After finding the photo of himself and Bradman in the bar, Richards had it cleaned up and presented to his old school where it now hangs before children growing up with the assurance that they will not suffer the same fate as he and his teammates.