A new exhibition presenting the extraordinary career of Ali Bacher is open to the public at the South African Jewish Museum in Cape Town. The exhibition, themed The Life of Ali Bacher: From the Cricket Field to the Boardroom, follows the life story of a giant in the history of South African cricket.
Ali Bacher is known to fans around the world. Born in Roodepoort to Lithuanian Jewish immigrants in 1942, Aron “Ali” Bacher was a child prodigy who represented his province at the age of 17.
“There was a feeling… that Ali was somehow more special than the other children; that he was the ‘chosen one’ who was born to lead,” wrote Bacher’s biographer, Rodney Hartman.
In March 1965, while he was studying to be a doctor, Bacher was named to the Springbok team. Soon thereafter he was made captain of the legendary 1969–70 Test side that trounced Australia and featured legends such as Graeme and Peter Pollock, Barry Richards and Mike Proctor.
He would later recall: “I was blessed and privileged to captain what was probably the finest team South Africa has ever produced. Some of the greatest cricketers the world has ever seen were in that team.”
Sporting isolation meant that this team would never really be able to prove itself in the international arena. Bacher retired from playing and spent the next decade in private practice as a medical doctor. A short foray into the business world resulted in a stress-induced heart attack and Bacher once again took the lead to become one of the first-ever bypass patients in South Africa.
Following this brush with mortality, Bacher returned to his first passion and embarked on an extraordinary 22 years as a cricket administrator, rising to managing director of the South African Cricket Union in the late 1980s.
In this position, he spearheaded the expansion of the game in disadvantaged communities through coaching clinics and development programmes. He professionalised the game, arranged for the infamous “rebel tours”, was midwife to the unification of white and black cricket and the birth and welcome of the Proteas on the global stage, and managed the Hansie Cronje match-fixing saga, the hosting of the 2003 Cricket World Cup and all manner of crisis in between.
Ali Bacher was at the heart of almost every memorable and historic occurrence in South African cricket from 1981 to 2003. It is astounding that Bacher was able to navigate South African cricket so ably through this period.
The exhibition consists of a variety of panels detailing Bacher’s career, artefacts from his time in the game and archive footage not seen since the 1960s. This original exhibition traces the immense contribution of one of South Africa’s most recognisable men.
Join South African cricket legend Ali Bacher for breakfast and conversation with Vince van der Bijl at the SA Jewish Museum on Friday, February 11 at 7.30am. Booking essential. For more information visit www.sajewishmuseum.co.za/.