Finally, South Africa like what they see in the mirror

It was April 23, 1992, long enough ago for apartheid still to be the law of the land in South Africa.

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For Nelson Mandela to have been out of prison for just more than two years but not yet elected president. For ordinary black and brown South Africans to hope - to expect, even - that a better life was imminent.

But it was not long enough ago for South Africa to remain banished from international cricket, part of the punishment for whites - the only citizens who were allowed to vote repeatedly choosing racism at the ballot box.

Regardless of the fact that they represented an apartheid state, the national team had played three men's ODIs in India in November 1991 and in the 1992 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, where they reached the semifinals.

Weeks later they were off the Caribbean for an ODI in Kingston, two more in Port-of-Spain, and a Test in Bridgetown.

The world was different then. So was cricket. And cricketwriting. Incredible as it will seem to today's intensely cost-conscious reporters, we took the same flights and stayed in the same hotels as the teams. There was no internet as we know it, nevermind wifi, mobile phones or AI transcription tools. Communication with editors was strictly by landline.

Pressboxes were filled with crusty old men, who almost never went to press conferences. Because there were almost no press conferences.