 In 1966 Douglas @-@ Home became president of the MCC , which was then the governing body of English and world cricket . The presidency had generally been a largely ceremonial position , but Douglas @-@ Home became embroiled in two controversies , one of them with international implications . This was the so @-@ called " D 'Oliveira affair " , in which the inclusion of a non @-@ white player in the England team to tour South Africa led to the cancellation of the tour by the apartheid regime in Pretoria . In his account of the affair , the political journalist Peter Oborne criticises Douglas @-@ Home for his vacillating attitude towards the South African Prime Minister , B J Vorster with whom , says Oborne , " he was no more robust than Chamberlain had been with Hitler thirty years earlier " . Douglas @-@ Home 's advice to the MCC committee not to press the South Africans for advance assurances on D 'Oliveira 's acceptability , and his optimistic assurances that all would be well , became a matter of much criticism from a group of MCC members led by the Rev David Sheppard . The second controversy was not one of race but of social class . Brian Close was dropped as England captain in favour of Colin Cowdrey . Close was dropped after using delaying tactics when captaining Yorkshire in a county match , but the move was widely seen as biased towards cricketers from the old amateur tradition , which had officially ended in 1963 . 
