Ray White

An aggressive top-order batsman, Ray White first made his mark in the Cambridge side, winning four Blues between 1962 and 1965, captaining them in his final year. He also played for Gloucestershire after university between 1962 and 1964, and in 1962 took part in the last Gentlemen v Players match, top scoring in the match for Gentlemen with 95. His best summer was 1962 when he scored 1696 runs at 29.24, including three hundreds, two for Cambridge and one for Gloucestershire. He passed 1000 runs again in 1963. After finishing at Cambridge he continued his career in South Africa with Transvaal, scoting a career-best 205 against Griqualand West in his first season, playing for them through to 1972-73. In 1998 White was elected president of the South African board, but he was forced to resign halfway through his second year and replaced by Percy Sonn. He departed with a swipe at the SA board - "little more than the cricket organ of the ANC" - and said that the game in South Africa was "fracturing along racial lines and that the board was "a cesspool of self-interest and politics".
Martin Williamson