On January 9 in the New Year, India and South Africa will meet at Durban's Moses Mabhida Stadium in a Twenty20 game as part of the 150th anniversary celebrations of the arrival of Indian indentured workers in the province of Natal. That game, at one of the venues of the FIFA World Cup, is expected to attract the biggest crowd for a cricket match in the country, but its foundations were laid almost 18 years ago when international cricket returned to South Africa following decades of boycott due to apartheid. The Indian team, in 1992-93, became the first recognised non-white national side to tour South Africa, and it was no surprise that Durban, with its large diaspora and ties with the motherland, put on a huge reception and staged the first Test.
The tour - labelled the Friendship Series - was South Africa's way of reciprocating India's efforts in ending the country's sporting isolation in 1991. India had been among the principal opponents of apartheid - it snapped diplomatic ties with South Africa in 1948 following the electoral victory of the National Party, which implemented the apartheid laws. But Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1990, the return of the African National Congress (ANC), the movement towards establishing a multi-racial democracy and emotional links with its large Indian population all boosted the possibility of restoring relations.
Ali Bacher, the former South Africa batsman who captained them in their previous Test series, in 1970-71, led the effort in pushing for full-member status within the ICC after becoming the managing director of the unified United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA). India's vote - with backing from its government - played a critical role in achieving it. And when a home series against Pakistan was cancelled, India called on South Africa to fill the breach. Within days Clive Rice led South Africa on a three-match tour of India to mark his country's return to international cricket. A year later it was India's turn to tour.
"In 1991, our reintroduction into world cricket, at the ICC level, was proposed by India," Bacher said. "Because of this we said to them that when we have our first international tour into South Africa, it would be India, as a gesture of appreciation for their support for our return to international cricket. We offered it to them. They never said it should be part of the deal. It came from us and obviously we kept our word."
The tour served as a successful example of sporting diplomacy, given the political backdrop and the mutual desire to improve ties, and the significance of India's visit expressed itself in the reception the cricketers received from the Indian community. Hundreds cheered on the streets of Durban during a motorcade reception, and there was little doubt over where their loyalties lay - partly as a result of emotional ties but also due to the alienation wrought by apartheid.
"When we went there we were shocked by the extent to which apartheid had wreaked havoc in society," Ayaz Memon, a senior Indian journalist who visited South Africa in 1991 and covered the 1992-93 tour, said. "To see such segregation in real terms was quite extraordinary."
Harsha Bhogle, who was also among the journalists on the tour, wrote this in his biography of then India captain Mohammad Azharuddin: "'The team has come from our motherland to defeat the white man,' they said and their voices spoke of a language of pain and hatred."
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