Episode Details

🏏 In Episode 8 of Weird World of Cricket, Ash dives head-first into one of the most politically charged and morally complex chapters the game has ever known.

🏏 From South Africa’s expulsion from world cricket in the early 1970s, through the shadowy rebel tours of the 1980s, and finally to the nation’s long-awaited return, this episode explores a period where cricket, money, politics and conscience collided head-on.

🏏 Featuring firsthand accounts, unheard player perspectives, and the uncomfortable contradictions that surrounded figures like Bradman, Gooch, Hughes and Viv Richards, this is a story of isolation, defiance, hypocrisy — and survival.

🏏 Were the rebels mercenaries, villains… or something more complicated?

🏏 And did these unsanctioned tours ultimately damage South African cricket — or help save it?

🏏 No easy answers. 

🏏 No sugar-coating. 

🏏 Just one of cricket’s strangest and most controversial journeys laid bare.

• Soundbites of Dr Ali Bacher courtesy of ESPNCricinfo