The 1970 English cricket season was the 71st in which the County Championship had been an official competition. There was controversy when a tour by South Africa was forced to be abandoned because of mounting opposition to the apartheid policy perpetuated by the South African government. Five Tests were scheduled but the tour was officially cancelled at the request of Home Secretary James Callaghan. Instead, England played a highly successful series of unofficial Tests against a Rest of the World XI which was captained by Gary Sobers and included some of the best South African players such as Graeme Pollock, Eddie Barlow, Mike Procter and Barry Richards. These matches were promoted as Tests at the time, but were not recognised as such by the International Cricket Conference. Alan Jones pla