The South African national cricket team was scheduled to tour England over the 1970 English summer. However, the tour was cancelled after protests from the anti-apartheid movement.
It was replaced by a Rest of the World team.
The original tour schedule contained 28 matches. The Cricket Council, the governing body of English cricket, met at Lord's on 12 February 1970 when they decided to revise the tour programme, cutting it from 28 to 12 matches. Grounds at which the police would find it difficult to maintain order were excluded from the itinerary. The fixture list was published in that year's Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.