Date-stamped : 27 Nov95 - 02:37 Electronic Telegraph Monday 27 November 1995 No sympathy for `castaway` Cartwright Paul Weaver on the man whose withdrawal from the party precipi- tated the affair TOM Cartwright remembers the D`Oliveira Affair better than anyone else - it was his withdrawal from the England party to tour South Africa which in September 1968 led to Dolly`s belated call-up. Cartwright, 60, one of the best medium-pace bowlers to play for England, never got the chance to add to his five Tests after that. The man who taught Ian Botham how to bowl when player-coach at Somerset is now living in Neath and is national coach for the Welsh Cricket Association. "I remember everyone feeling sorry for Dolly - but no one felt sorry for me! "I was getting on for 30 when I broke into the England side in 1964 and it was disappointing that most of my injury problems started at about that time. "At the end of the 1968 season I was suffering with a frozen shoulder. "I didn`t play for Warwickshire in the Gillette Cup final against Sussex but it wasn`t until a little later, after a lot of physio work, that I pulled out of the tour party. "That was when they called up Dolly. It was hardly a like for like replacement because I was a bowler who batted a bit while he was a wonderful batsman who was not really a front-line bowler. "But it was a cock-up. It was illogical not to pick him in the first place, especially after his big hundred at the Oval. I felt sorry for the blokes who never got the chance to tour South Afri- ca - at least I had been there in 1964-65." Cartwright, who retired in 1977 with 1,536 wickets at the miserly average of 19.11, feels the cricket world was right to isolate South Africa after they rejected d`Oliveira. "I felt that the only way to bring them into line was to deprive them of sport and I`ve been proved right. I remember being ap- palled by all the hypocrites who said you should not let politics enter sport. "They had forgotten that it was South Africa who brought the pol- itics in when they said no to Dolly. "Anyway, cricket has always been a very political game. "The funny thing now is that I live round the corner from Peter Hain, who was a real hero when he helped stop the proposed 1970 tour of England by South Africa." Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et/) Contributed by Shash (shs2@*.cwru.edu)