Sports protests through history

A scene from the Springbok tour protests in 1981. Note the headgear of choice for the protestors - motorcycle helmets, to counter the blows of the police 'Red Squad'.

On the day a ruling comes down from the IRB over the Springboks' "Justice 4 Bakkies" armband protest, it's opportune to look back at some of the times when sports events have been disrupted by protest action.

In the Boks' armband-wearing case, the match against the Lions went ahead unaffected. But on many occasions, a protest has caused the postponement, or indeed the cancellation, of a sporting event.

Here's a look back at ten times when controversy reared its head on the sports field.


1. 1981 Springbok Tour

New Zealand's most historic sports-related protest came with the 1981 Springbok tour. The South African government's policy of racial segregation - apartheid - polarised opinions and sparked controversy throughout the country. The decision to proceed with the tour inspired widespread protests.
During July, August and September that year, New Zealanders were divided against each other in the largest civil disturbance seen since the 1951 waterfront dispute. More than 150,000 people took part in over 200 demonstrations in 28 centres, and 1500 were charged with offences stemming from these protests.
Protests affected matchdays in all the centres, and one tour match - the one against Waikato in Hamilton - was cancelled due to a pitch invasion by demonstrators.
Even today, "keep politics out of sport" is a debate firmly seared into the minds of those who were there at the grounds, or at home watching on television. Some commentators have described this tour as the moment when New Zealand lost its innocence as a country and as being a watershed in our view of ourselves as a nation.

2. Middle-East politics hit tennis

Present-day New Zealand isn't immune, either. In January this year, anti-Israel activists protested at the ASB Classic women's tennis tournament in Auckland where Israeli player Shahar Peer was competing.
They waved shoes at fans, urging them to boycott Peer's quarter final match, saying she should speak out against her government's Gaza campaign and quit the tournament.
"We are asking her to make a big sacrifice but it's not as big as the sacrifice Palestinians are making every day of their lives," said John Minto of the Global Peace and Justice network. (Minto was also a central fugure in the Springbok tour protests, 27 years previously!) Peer herself sensibly ignored the protesters, saying she is just here to play tennis.

3. Olympic boycotts of 1976 and 1980

The Olympic Games have been the scene of many protests - hardly surprising, considering the spotlight of world attention focuses sharply on the Games for that fortnight each four years.
In 1980, the United States led a 61-nation boycott of the summer Olympics held in Moscow that year. US President Jimmy Carter called for the boycott to protest the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Four years earlier, in protest at a rugby tour of South Africa by the All Blacks early in the year, Congo led a boycott of the Montreal games by 28 African nations after the IOC refused to bar the New Zealand team from competing.

4. The Black Power salute

At the Mexico Olympic Games in 1968, two American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, raised their fists in a "black power" salute after the men's 200m race, which Smith won in world-record time and Carlos secured a bronze. Their point: why should black athletes represent their country when, back at home, the US treated its black population so appallingly? IOC president Avery Brundage suspended both men from the US Olympic team, stripped them of their medals and sent them home.
To show how times have changed, in July last year Smith and Carlos were honoured for their gesture. They were joint recipients of the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage, presented at the the 2008 ESPY Awards in Los Angeles.

5. Hardly cricket (I)

During a cricket tour of England in 2006, Pakistan were deemed to have forfeited the fourth Test at the Oval after being accused of cheating by match officials. In scenes never before seen on a cricket pitch, Pakistan's players staged a protest by failing to emerge from their dressing room at the end of the tea interval, two-and-a-quarter hours after the umpires had deemed them guilty of illegally tampering with a cricket ball.

6. Hardly cricket (II)

The bad blood between England and Pakistan cricket teams goes way back. In Faislabad in 1987, in one of the most controversial incidents in cricketing history, England captain Mike Gatting strode up to Pakistani umpire Shakoor Rana and a stream of finger-jabbing and foul language followed. It was all about Gatting making fielding adjustments as one of his bowlers was running in to bowl. Rana said Gatting's actions were contrary to the spirit of the game.
The game was stopped by the incident and only resumed the following day. Gatting was threatened with being stripped of the England captaincy and was forced into issuing a written apology to Rana.

7. Controversy affects The Beautiful Game

The 1966 soccer World Cup saw all but one African or Asian country boycott the event, partly as a result of FIFA's refusal to sanction a sporting boycott against South Africa, although probably more significant was the refusal of FIFA to provide more than one place in the finals to African and Asian nations.

8. It ain't fair, ref

In the 1999 FA Cup soccer tournament, a 5th-round encounter between Arsenal and Sheffield United had to be replayed when Sheffield protested that Arsenal's 2-1 win had been unfairly gained. Arsenal breached accepted football etiquette when they took advantage of a free throw following an injury to score the winning goal (it's customary to play the ball passively back to the team whose player had suffered the injury).
In the spirit of the game, Arsenal agreed to replay the match - even though the FA did not deem that a replay was necessary. In the sequel played ten days later, fairness seemed to have the last say, as Arsenal once again won, and by the same scoreline, 2-1.

9. Rebels amongst the azaleas

The sedate game of golf would seem to be far removed from any distasteful 'protest' action. But in 2003 dissent arrived on the first tee at the prestigious Masters tournament in Augusta, Georgia, disturbing the tranquil beauty of the azalea-lined course - and ruffling the feathers of the genteel members. For over 70 years, women had been barred from membership at Augusta National. Martha Burk organised the National Council of Women's Organizations into staging a placard protest against the club's treatment of their gender. (In retrospect, it all achieved little, as the 'men only' aspect of Augusta thrives through to this day.)

10. Keel-hauled by Dennis Connor

And how could a list of sporting controversies be complete without one concerning yachting?
The America's Cup is so prone to protest action, that there is often conjecture about whether the silverware is won "on the water, or in the courtroom". The protests have been too numerous to begin to mention (the protest flag seems to make an appearance each race, if not several times each race), but the most memorable piece of legalese was probably one that affected the 1988 campaign.
The challenge initially came about through Michael Fay, a merchant banker, who saw an opportunity in the Deed of Gift to initiate a direct challenge that would exclude other teams, and avoid the need for a challenger selection series.
When faced with a New Zealand challenge he didn't really want to accept, Dennis Connor of the San Diego Yacht Club found a way to bend the rules. Claiming time was too short to build something matching the Kiwis' design, Connor put up a speedy catamaran to race against New Zealand's Bruce Farr-designed monohull KZ-1, the so-called "big boat". The farcical mis-match had to be held, so in four "races", the swift cat left KZ-1 - and Kiwi hopes - in its wake.