Does it matter which cricket team you support?

IN 1960, THE CONSERVATIVE politician Norman Tebbit devised what has become known as ‘the cricket test’ to ascertain how well immigrants had become integrated into the life of the United Kingdom and how loyal they had become to their adopted home. It related to which team they supported when the team from their country of origin was playing test cricket against a British team. He suggested that those immigrants who support their native country’s cricket team rather than England’s  are not significantly integrated into the United Kingdom

My father was an immigrant. He was born, brought up, and educated in South Africa. He took a keen interest in professional sport, when it was presented on the radio (we did not have a television at home). I remember seeing him sitting at his desk in his study working with the radio on in the background. He delighted in listening to radio commentaries of cricket and tennis matches. I am not sure whether he was able to visualise the games in his mind, or whether he was only interested in the scores, or both. When, after apartheid was ended in South Africa, and the South African cricketers were once again playing the English team, he was asked which of them he hoped would win. He said:

“It does not matter to me,” he replied, “I support both of them.”

I wonder whether this counted as a pass or fail in Tebbit’s cricket test?