The catalogue of cancelled or postponed sporting events seems to have grown by the day and the list has included the lucrative Indian Premier League in cricket.

The Northern Hemisphere summer of 2020 was also to have seen the  launch of "The Hundred", a new format for both men and women featuring many top players designed to attract a new younger market for the sport. Organisers hope this can now be held in the summer of 2021.

For very different reasons, money problems also loomed for cricket 50 summers ago.

In the days before official International Cricket Council rankings existed, South Africa had established themselves as the leading team in the world. They had emphatically beaten Australia 4-0 in the Southern Hemisphere summer of 1969-1970. 

There seemed no cricketing reason why they should not have continued success as a golden generation of players emerged. These included opening batsman Barry Richards and all-rounder Mike Procter who took their places seamlessly in what was already a powerful line up.

The side was captained by Ali Bacher, but the future was uncertain because the spectre of apartheid hung over South African sport at the time.

The Springboks rugby union team had toured the British Isles during the previous Northern Hemisphere  winter. This had been targeted by anti apartheid protesters, including Gordon Brown, a future British Prime Minister.

The cricketers were originally scheduled to have arrived in late April and played throughout the summer. Instead a much reduced itinerary was announced with matches scheduled only at grounds where extensive security measures were possible. Barbed wire fencing was installed at some.

A group called "Stop the Seventy Tour" led the protests. It was coordinated by Peter Hain, a South African student who had come to the United Kingdom as a teenager with his parents after they had been harassed by security forces.

The British Council of Churches added their condemnation and former test match batsman David Sheppard, by then the Bishop of Woolwich, headed the "Fair Cricket Campaign" which also sought to prevent the tour.

Sheppard warned of a "disastrous effect on sport throughout the Commonwealth."

British Commonwealth Games Federation chairman Sir Alexander Ross had appealed for the cancellation of the cricket tour after India threatened a boycott of the 1970 Commonwealth Games, due to be held in Edinburgh. The Supreme Council for Sport in Africa warned of similar action by African nations.

Many were concerned that the sporting world might be split on racial lines.

A pro-tour group, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Newman, awarded a Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces, during World War Two, established a "Cricket Fund" to cover the additional costs of the visit by the South Africans.

When the influential Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) met at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, groups on either side debated the matter. Although no vote was taken, MCC indicated that its members were broadly in favour of the tour proceeding.

British Prime Minister Harold Wilson made a television appeal for the cricket authorities to "make a sporting declaration."

When this had no effect, his Government announced that the tour was off "on the grounds of broad public policy."

The decision was hailed as "a great triumph for reason" by anti-apartheid activists.

There were immediate financial consequences. Although cricket had two sponsored domestic one day competitions which brought in considerable income, gate receipts from test matches were vital to the financial well-being of the sport at large.

"In this day and age, it is the sort of loss we can hardly afford," said Worcestershire county secretary Joe Lister. "It means we would depend more and more on our membership, what we can attract at the gate and on our luck with the weather." 

The Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB) was the body responsible for top-level cricket and devised what veteran cricket writer E. W. Swanton described as "a novel confrontation."

The plan was a series of five day Test matches, featuring England against the Rest of the World.

There was one important factor in their favour. England was the only major cricketing nation with a season in the Northern Hemisphere summer. Many star players from overseas had contracts to play for county teams.

A sponsorship deal with the Arthur Guinness brewery was quickly agreed which pumped £20,000 ($25,000/€22,000) into the series. Warwickshire cricket’s secretary Leslie Deakins called it "a most generous offer."

The county clubs were encouraged to release players for the international series. An official statement from Lord’s said: "Guinness, recognising that the county cricket clubs are contributing a number of star players to ensure the success of the series have decided to allocate £7,000 ($8,500/€7,750) of the £20,000 for distribution to the county clubs."

An agreement to televise the matches was also reached. This was no mean achievement because the start of the series coincided with a General Election, the FIFA World Cup in Mexico, Wimbledon and the Open Golf Championship. The third Test even clashed with the opening of the Commonwealth Games.

The brightest star in cricket’s firmament at the time was Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, still considered one of the greatest of all time. Sobers was a magnificent all rounder who was captain of the West Indies and contracted to Nottinghamshire for the summer.

He was the natural choice to lead the World XI and joined a three man selection panel entrusted with choosing the ultimate "fantasy" cricket team. Freddie Brown, a pipe smoking former England Test captain was appointed chief selector and joined by Les Ames, a successful England wicketkeeper in the 1930s and, by this time, secretary of Kent County Cricket Club.

"We aim to pick what we consider to be the best and most exciting team in the world today," Brown said. "I feel that the Rest of the World can become an impossible combination to beat."

The way was also cleared for them to choose some South African players.

Brian Thomas, National Trade Union coordinator of the "Stop the Seventy Tour" Committee had said: "Individual white South African players not representing their country are acceptable."

Originally some had been reticent about taking up the invitation but fast bowler Peter Pollock said: "To say no to a World invitation eleven would be an answer for politics. To say yes would be an answer for sport."

Both he and his brother Graeme eventually took part. In the course of the series, five South Africans lined up alongside Indian, Pakistani and West Indian team-mates. This would have been impossible for any official South African team at the time.

"As an exercise in international relations, the series was an object lesson," wrote John Woodcock in The Cricketer magazine. "No friction, no clenched fists, no jealousy, no discrimination."

The Rest of the World eventually won by four matches to one with one drawn.

After the final match of the series, Sobers was presented with what Wisden Cricket Almanack editor Norman Preston described as "the handsome silver trophy." This was shaped like the Guinness Harp and was on display throughout last summer at the Lord’s Cricket Museum in London.

"This series has finally triumphed over its detractors and in doing so one hopes has made their sponsorship a worthwhile investment for Guinness," wrote Swanton, a veteran correspondent on the game.

"There seems to be no reason why future Test series should not be refreshed by sponsorship if terms mutually satisfactory to the cricket authority and the firms concerned can be negotiated."

The World XI reappeared in Australia two years later as the replacement for another South African tour. Although their players still took part as individuals in domestic cricket, an official South African team did not reappear in official international cricket until after the end of apartheid.

By a twist of fate, when cricket was included in the 1998 Commonwealth Games for the first time, South Africa won gold.