Durban's Hoosen Bobat, who qualified for the 1971 junior Wimbledon championship but was excluded at the last minute, wants acknowledgement and apologies from three tennis bodies for racial discrimination. | REUTERS/Matthew Childs
Durban — Tennis South Africa (TSA) says there is no documentary evidence that Durban tennis player Hoosen Bobat was excluded from playing at Wimbledon during apartheid.
TSA President Gavin Crookes said it happened before the body was formed.
Last year Bobat ‒ now 72 and living in Reservoir Hills ‒ made international news when his story was told in a book, Tennis, Apartheid and Social Justice: The First Non-Racial International Tennis Tour, 1971.
Written by respected Professor Saleem Badat, it detailed the constraints black players faced during apartheid. It tells the story of Bobat, who was accepted to participate in the 1971 junior Wimbledon championship organised by the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), and then subsequently excluded after meddling by South Africa’s white tennis body.
After the book was published, appeals were made to the organisations involved to publicly acknowledge their complicity in Bobat’s exclusion, but a year later there has been no word from the three tennis bodies: the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and TSA.
Wimbledon is still conducting its investigation, and as the sport’s most prestigious tournament draws to an end this weekend, it’s a bittersweet moment for Bobat.
As an 18-year-old, Bobat and his teammates were excluded from playing for South Africa because only white players were officially recognised and sponsored.
However, like other players aligned to the non-racial South African Lawn Tennis Union, they found a way to compete abroad with other teams and finally he received a telegram from the AELTC saying he could play on tennis’s most hallowed grounds.
But the dream was short-lived. Just days before the start of the tournament, Bobat was summoned to a meeting by the AELTC, attended by a representative of South Africa’s white tennis body. He was told he could no longer compete.
Despite correspondence to the three tennis bodies last year, neither Bobat nor Badat have received any response, although the ITF initially said it would investigate.
Speaking from the UK this week, Crookes told the Independent on Saturday that all three organisations had a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of exclusion based on sex, race or creed.
“My enquiries at the ITF and AELTC have shown that they likewise have no records of the incident (more than 50 years ago), nor are any of the administrators involved alive,” said Crookes.
For Bobat, 53 years later, the day that marked his exclusion remains as stark as ever.
“I can still hear those words ringing in my ears,” he said.
Independent on Saturday
