Grovel’s cricket context was tainted by the stink of racism in Greig’s comment, and has remained so. Greig was a white South African, a product and beneficiary of apartheid. Had he been born any other race he likely wouldn’t have had a professional cricket career, or – like the brown Basil D’Oliveira did – he would have had to leave South Africa to pursue his dream. Greig also left South Africa; because he wanted to, not because that was his only choice. De Oliveira didn’t have a choice if he wanted to play the game professionally, which was the preserve of whites.
