Time to Declare by Basil D'Oliveira & Patrick Murphy

Time to Declare (Cricketer's Autobiography in Original Dust Jacket)

The Cape-Born England Test Cricketer's Own Account of Life, Exile and the Cause of the D'Oliveira Affair

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: Time to Declare: an autobiography
• Authors: Basil D'Oliveira & Patrick Murphy
• Publisher: Macmillan South Africa (Publishers), Johannesburg
• Publication Date: 1980
• ISBN-10: 0869540971
• Edition Details: First published in South Africa, 1980. With a foreword by John Arlott.
• Binding: Publisher's green cloth hardcover, with the Macmillan device to the foot of the spine. Issued in a photographic dust jacket, protected in a durable archival-type plastic cover.
• Physical Format: Octavo hardcover, roughly 220 x 140 mm. With photographic illustrations and a foreword.
• Language: English

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Very Good (VG)
• Exterior / Boards: The green cloth boards are clean and bright, with slight bumping or softening to the top fore-corner of the back board. The spine is green. The fore-edge and bottom edge are cream and lightly toned.
• Interior: The text pages seen are clean, with no foxing, markings or tears. The binding appears tight. The page edges are slightly toned.
• The Dust Jacket: Present, in a durable archival-type plastic cover. The jacket shows a crease near the top of the front panel, light surface scuffing and shelf wear to the laminate, and a small spot near the title on the front. The back panel has light scratches and scuffs to the laminate.

Synopsis & Historical Value

Time to Declare is the autobiography of Basil D'Oliveira, written with Patrick Murphy and first published in 1980, after the end of his Test career. It follows him from a Cape Coloured upbringing in Signal Hill, Cape Town, to a career playing Test cricket for England and county cricket for Worcestershire. The volume carries a foreword by John Arlott.

D'Oliveira's story is inseparable from the 1968 controversy that bears his name. His possible selection for England's 1968-69 tour of South Africa brought the apartheid government's racial policies into the heart of international sport. His own account of that experience is cited as a primary source on the affair.

For collectors of Africana, South African sporting history and apartheid-era memoir, this is a first-hand testimony from the man at the centre of one of cricket's defining political episodes. This copy is the Macmillan Johannesburg issue, complete with its photographic dust jacket.

Author Profile: Basil D'Oliveira

Basil Lewis D'Oliveira (1931-2011) was an England international cricketer of South African Cape Coloured background. He played for Worcestershire from 1964 to 1980, and his potential selection for England's 1968-69 tour of South Africa caused the D'Oliveira affair. He was made OBE in 1969 and CBE in 2005.

Time to Declare was written with Patrick Murphy, then of the BBC, who is credited as the book's ghost writer.

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