Talk:Salisbury Sports Club tournament in 1970

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Garfield Sobers Rhodesia affair/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Sarastro1 (talk · contribs) 13:15, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

This is looking very good, and a very interesting read. A few nit-picks, though. I'll place this on hold for now. Sarastro1 (talk) 13:21, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

• "The resulting furore nearly saw him stripped of his captaincy": Ignore this one if you like, but I hate "saw" being used like this. I much prefer "The resulting furore nearly caused him to lose the captaincy" or "He nearly lost the captaincy through the resulting furore".
• "Sobers was captain of the "Rest of the World" all-star team": "all-star team" is not a term that is ever used in cricket, and that particular team was just "the Rest of the World team". Also, "all star" has slightly different connotations in terms of selection/what it represents, but the RoW team was not quite done like that.
• "Sobers refused to apologise": I'm not sure this is right. Did he ever say "I won't apologise", or just try to justify himself. And it rather contradicts his later apology.
• "was widely seen as one of the world's finest cricketers ": perhaps "regarded" rather than "seen".
• "and is latterly placed by many among the best to ever play the sport": Why latterly?
• "Amid the ensuing scandal, Marylebone Cricket Club (which then governed English cricket) called off the tour, and invited the all-white South Africa team to play in England instead.": Not quite. The 1968 tour was cancelled, but the 1970 one was already scheduled, and the TCCB (which was effectively still the MCC at that point) did not organise it as an alternative, as suggested here. I think this is a slight misreading of the source.
• "between England and a "Rest of the World" all-star scratch team": Aaarrrggghhh! Neither "all-star" nor "scratch team" are terms used in cricket (or any British sport) very much. Better would be something along the lines of "…a "Rest of the World" team comprising leading cricketers from around the world".
• "This squad, described by Wisden…": Should be Wisden Cricketers' Almanack", and I think given the style of the rest of the article it would be worth defining Wisden here (leading cricket publication or something like that).
• "and he and Bacher failed to win the tournament.[1] Though they had not won, the other teams formed a guard of honour": I don't think we need to say that they didn't win twice like this.
• "he said. "I don't see why this should affect my position as captain of the West Indies team.[12]... I am a professional cricketer and a sportsman, not a politician."[2][13]": I'm not sure we should be joining several quotes like this into one.
• "Sobers hoped that the furore would simply peter out, but it did not": Not quite. The source says "If he hoped the furore would die down, he was to be disappointed", which is slightly different.
• "His controversial visit to Rhodesia has been described as precursoring the West Indian "rebel tours" affair of the early 1980s": Described by who? And I think this is stretching it a bit. And does the source article really say that this was a precursor?

• The source, this Cricinfo article by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan, says:

"Cult status in South Africa was in stark contrast to the outrage back home. The 18 West Indians had not just undertaken a tour but defied their governments, the United Nations and the cricket authorities to enter the forbidden land of apartheid. There were ominous precedents in this regard. In 1970 the Guyana government had declared that Garfield Sobers, then West Indies' captain, would not be allowed into the country unless he apologised for a visit to Rhodesia on which he had been photographed having lunch with Prime Minister Ian Smith. In 1974 an international team sponsored by the British financier Derrick Robins were not allowed to include Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago on their itinerary because Robins had also sponsored a similar team to South Africa. In 1981 the Georgetown Test was aborted because England picked Robin Jackman, who had played as a professional in Rhodesia and South Africa. Now a West Indies team were actually playing in South Africa."

• I interpreted this as a precursor, perhaps this is not correct? I admit I am not much of a cricketing bod, as I think is evident from my use of non-cricketing terms earlier in the article... All the other suggestions I've implemented, thanks! —Cliftonian (talk) 13:45, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

• Fair enough, based on the source. I would tend to think that the author was reaching a bit, but I'm not a reliable source! Sarastro1 (talk) 20:03, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

Sourcing: Very high quality, with one exception:

• Liverman: Just be careful with this one. He wrote many such profiles on Cricinfo, most of which have been replaced. I'm not sure who he is, or why he would be regarded as an authority (some of his pronouncements can be … odd.). While this would be fine as a RS, it may be better to use more of a cricketing heavyweight writer, and I'm sure what he says could be found elsewhere.

• Okay, have put a new book reference —Cliftonian (talk) 13:45, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

General:

• Other than any minor issues raised above, no issues with spot checks.
• One image, which checks out fine.
• Dablinks, etc all fine. Sarastro1 (talk) 13:21, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

• Thank you very much for this review! I hope my changes are satisfactory and thank you for the kind words. Have a great weekend! —Cliftonian (talk) 13:45, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

All good. Passing now. Sarastro1 (talk) 20:03, 29 June 2013 (UTC)