1983 made a difference in disbanding apartheid, less than a decade after the West Indies players were there. Gilkes wrote a seven-part series about the tour. In the last article, he stated the trip might have started with the players being viewed as mercenaries, but he saw them as missionaries who converted white South Africans to accepting that blacks were their equals. I know I went there as a missionary, King said. Murray agreed. I do n't see the mercenary part of it or whatever. We were just professional cricketers. You 've got work to do. What do mercenaries do ? Stephenson asked. They go and fight somebody else's cause. Well, yes I was a mercenary for black people's cause, because wherever I 've been, I 've been an ambassador for my country, my race and the game of cricket. So if that's being a mercenary, then yes I was.