England were scheduled to travel to the West Indies in 1981. Robin Jackman was one player selected to tour West Indies when Bob Willis got injured. However, it was his connections with South Africa that created outrage. This was related to apartheid ruling the country. He was married to a South African woman and had spent several winters playing for Western Province and Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).
Eccentric commentator, Alan Gibson, had christened him, Shoreditch Sparrow, although he didn't have any obvious connection with Shoreditch. Robin Jackman had little ability but toiled his way to wickets.
Named in the English squad for the Centenary Test against Australia in August 1980, Robin Jackman had been over the moon. His long-cherished, rosy and increasingly impossible looking dream was ultimately crystallising into reality.
However, when he reported to the team hotel on the eve of the Test, the receptionist brought him crashing down to earth with the greeting, "Ah, yes, Mr. Jackman. Now you’re only booked for two nights, aren’t you?" The disappointed bowler immediately knew that he had been appointed as a standby.
He didn't find a place in the side led by Ian Botham that flew to the West Indies that winter. However, vice-captain, Bob Willis, had twisted his knee early in the tour. Jackman was called up as replacement.
When suggested that he was in for a roasting from the blades of Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, Jackman responded by saying, "What the blazes do you know? Nothing, nothing could ever stop me going anywhere or giving up anything for a chance to play for England."
However, something did. On the eve of the ODI in Berbice, a broadcast from Jamaica alerted the Guyanese Government about Jackman’s ties to South Africa. Rumours flew about during the night. After all, Guyana had been severely anti-apartheid for ages. When cricket was over for the summer in England, Jackman was used to following the sun down south to Cape Town, where he had a coaching job and turned out in Currie Cup matches. Down the years, he married a South African girl and every English winter was spent in the diamond country.
The local 7 am radio news had categorically stated that Jackman was not welcome in the country. A potential Basil D’Oliveira situation was on hand.
The D'Oliveira affair was a prolonged political and sporting controversy relating to the scheduled 1968–69 tour of South Africa by the England cricket team, who were officially representing the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).
The point of contention was whether the England selectors would include Basil D'Oliveira, a mixed-race South African player who had represented England in Test cricket since 1966, having moved there six years earlier. With South Africa under apartheid, the potential inclusion by England of a non-white South African in their tour party became a political issue.
The teams flew to Berbice for the ODI. However, Smith and a large contingent of press men stayed back to pay a visit to the British High Commissioner. Alec Bedser, chairman of the England selection committee, was asked live on British television about the Gleneagles Agreement. He had responded, "Well, I dunno, all I know is there’s a nice golf course there." Few knew how to interpret this with regard to the Jackman case. Neither did Phillip Mallet, the High Commissioner, have any idea what the Guyanese Government would decide.
Jackman was not playing in the ODI and the West Indies won by six wickets. The teams returned to the hotel, with the medium pacer wondering what was in store for him. Soon, a man in a stiff uniform arrived at the hotel, asking, "Which is Mr. Jackson’s room?" The notice he served to the Surrey bowler read:
"REVOCATION OF PERMIT
Under
Section 21 (4B) of Immigration Act
(Cap: 14.02)
Take Notice that on the direction of the President the permit granted to you on the 23rdFeb 1981 to enter and remain in Guyana for a period of two weeks is hereby revoked with immediate effect.
(Signed) J. Thorne, Deputy Supt, Immigration"
The night before the beginning of the 1st Test at Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, the Queen’s Park Oval pitch was sabotaged. The suspected culprits were supporters angered by the exclusion of Trinidad captain, Deryck Murray, from the West Indies team.
Attendance at the match was also poor. British High Commissioner, David Lane, estimated that the ground was only 75% full for the opening two days, dropping to 15% for the remainder. Captained by Ian Botham, England eventually suffered an innings defeat. At least, Lane remarked, "the team created, I think, a good impression here for everything except the standard of their cricket."
The decision to call-up Robin Jackman as a replacement for the injured fast bowler Bob Willis put the match in jeopardy. A fine county season in 1980 – for which he was later named as one of Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year – had led to Jackman’s first Test call-up, at the age of 35. Although he didn't play in the 1980 Centenary Test against Australia, he remained a logical addition to the England squad. The issue was that, in the absence of earlier international touring opportunities, Jackman had spent the British winters coaching and playing in South Africa and neighbouring Rhodesia.
Three days before the Georgetown Test was due to get underway, Britain’s High Commissioner to Guyana, Phillip Mallet, reported that, 'A squall has blown up over Jackman'. South Africa’s policy of apartheid was the subject of international outrage and efforts to isolate the country from sporting events. This was reflected in the 1977 Gleneagles Agreement, where Commonwealth leaders vowed, "to combat the evil of apartheid by withholding any form of support for, and by taking every practical step to discourage, contact or competition by their nationals with sporting organisations, teams or sportsmen from South Africa."
The Guyanese government took a particularly strong line on sporting relations with South Africa. High Commissioner Mallet wrote to the Foreign Office that, "We must hope that the Guyanese can get off the hook on which they have impaled themselves."
He suggested helping them by emphasising the multi-racial nature of the Test match, especially given that the tourists' squad included Barbados-born Roland Butcher, England’s first black player. At the same time, Mallet also warned Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rashleigh Jackson, that declaring Jackman a prohibited immigrant on the grounds of his South African contacts might lead to the departure of the whole England team and the cancellation of the Test.
The topic of Jackman’s presence in Guyana was exacerbated by domestic political sensitivities. In June 1980, the historian and political activist, Walter Rodney, an opponent of President Forbes Burnham, was assassinated by a car bomb. The Caribbean News Agency broke the details, prompting Guyana’s withdrawal from the organisation. Alan Payne of the Foreign Office’s Mexico and Caribbean Department, suggested that the Guyanese were prepared to overlook the links between the England touring party and South Africa, 'until Burnham’s old adversary, the Caribbean News Agency (CANA) took delight in drawing attention to those links'.
Speculation as to the future of the match and even the series, began to swirl as the publicity of Jackman’s connections to South Africa increased. Commonwealth secretary-general, Shridath Ramphal – a former foreign minister of Guyana – intervened in an attempt to calm the situation, while the matter was even raised at Prime Minister’s Questions on 26 February.
The same day, however, High Commissioner Mallet reported the Guyanese government’s decision to revoke Jackman’s visa. With the England Cricket Council unwilling to field a team under such circumstances, the Test match was cancelled. Reflecting on the events in a long letter to the Foreign Secretary on 6 March, Mallet concluded that, "There were principles at stake that could not be avoided," adding that, "in the last resort there was an emotional issue, that England should not be pushed around by a tin-pot quasi-dictator" such as Burnham.
The 3rd Test therefore went ahead as planned. Jackman finally made his Test debut, taking three West Indies wickets for 65 runs in the first innings and two for 76 in the second. He was unable to prevent England from succumbing to another heavy defeat, however. He also featured in the 5th Test at Sabina Park, Jamaica, which drew the ground’s highest ever attendance despite some appeals to cricket fans to boycott the game. Jackman, 'endeared himself to the crowd by his good humour'.
With this match and the 4th Test ending in draws, England lost the series 2–0. Jackman’s Test career came to an end the following summer. By then, he had played in a total of four matches, taking 14 wickets at an average of just under 32 runs. He went on to work as a commentator in South Africa at the conclusion of his playing career.
This is really interesting to me. It's really hard to form an opinion on the matter. Guyana took a stand that they should be commended for. They didn't compromise their morals. On the other hand, I don't think it's right to refuse entry just because a person spends time in a, 'forbidden' country. A person shouldn't be barred from something because of an association to something.