"We had been readmitted to international cricket but were not going to 1992 World Cup... But when Mandela was asked about his views, he said, 'Of course, we must play'," Ali Bacher, a former Cricket South Africa chief who played a major role in bringing the team back to international fold, wrote in his website column. After that, there was no looking back. South Africa went on to play in the semifinals of the 1992 World Cup, becoming one of the major cricket forces.
Through the '90s, Mandela was deeply involved in the running of the football and rugby associations in the country. But he never lost sight of cricket. "Even though he was a figurehead, he always knew what was happening. The steps taken in the 1990s in respect to cricket were all necessary," South Africa's long-time manager Goolam Rajah, who quit after 20 years of service in 2011, told TOI.
The introduction of the quota system, which mandated the inclusion of some black players in the team, was criticized widely but Rajah like many others felt it was probably a necessity then. "You should understand that the country was going through a change at that point of time... It had to be done then, but South African cricket has come a long way," Rajah said.
Mandela had a role in South Africa getting the 2003 World Cup and former captain Shaun Pollock remembers that. "He wished us luck in Cape Town and even after we lost out, he personally had a talk with me," Pollock said.
The allrounder, in fact, was called by the president even after he lost his captaincy. "He had words of solace for me and told me never to lose track of my ambitions," Pollock recalled.
Even through the 2000s, as Madiba's health was failing, he kept a track of South African cricket. "The last time we remember meeting him was before the 2007 World Cup - before we flew out to West Indies... He gave us hope and told us to fight on. We didn't win the World Cup. It's a regret that we couldn't gift Madiba the cricket World Cup," Rajah said.
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