March 10, 1970.

Captain Ali Bacher caught Alan Connolly off Pat Trimborn to complete the 4-0 rout. Bill Lawry's Australians were well and truly trounced.

Man for man, the South Africans were the strongest side in the world.

Barry Richards had scored over 500 runs in his first Test series, with stroke-play of majestic proportions. Graeme Pollock was perhaps the best batsman in the world alongside Garry Sobers — with an average over 60. His brother Peter was one of the great fast bowlers of the era with 116 Test wickets already under his belt. Mike Procter had played 7 Tests capturing 41 wickets at just 15 apiece. He would go on to stand alongside Don Bradman and CB Fry with 6 consecutive hundreds in First-class cricket. A genuine all-rounder equally gifted in all departments, capable of a century and a hat-trick in the same match.

Eddie Barlow was a fantastic batsman who could open the innings, an aggressive medium-pacer who often pleaded with his captain to have a bowl, and a slip fielder of uncanny reflexes. Lee Irvine was coasting on a fabulous start to his Test career. Denis Lindsay was touted as the greatest batsmen among wicket-keepers since Les Ames.

And a young man called John Traicos had just started to turn his off-breaks.

But when Bacher was chaired off the ground on the shoulders of teammates, it was the end of an era. The great side never played again.

The 1970 tour to England was cancelled. And soon, the superb band of cricketers found themselves left out of the international circuit.

Only Traicos managed to play Test cricket again. That was after a gap of 22 years, when he tweaked them for Zimbabwe, at the age of 45.

The rest remained in the shade of aparthied-linked isolation. That gilt edged team disbanded and drifted into county cricket, domestic circuits and occasional skirmishes against rebel sides that visited.
Yes, it was for a greater cause. But it remains one of the greatest ‘what might have been’ queries of cricket.

Text: Arunabha Sengupta
Illustration: Maha