Lyttelton was a former President of the MCC when he became embroiled in what became known as the D’Oliveira affair. Bruce Murray writes that “On 12 March 1968 Vorster saw Lord Cobham , a former MCC President, in Cape Town, and told him ‘quite categorically’ that D’Oliveira would not be acceptable. As Cobham later recalled in a letter to Sir de Villiers Graaff , the leader of the United Party, ‘As I remember, he said that a Cape Coloured, alone of all races, castes and creeds, would be likely to provide a catalyst to the potentially explosive — or possibly one should say tricky – Cape Coloured situation’. In April Lord Cobham duly conveyed this information to Billy Griffith when he saw him at Lord’s.”