[4] Bacher started playing cricket while at King Edward VII School in Johannesburg,[5] and represented Transvaal at the age of 17.
[6] He was appointed captain of Transvaal for the 1963–64 season, in place of John Waite, who was on tour with the South African national side in Australia.
[12] In 1981 Bacher had heart bypass surgery, then took up the job of leading Transvaal's newly professionalised cricket administration.
[14] Believing that apartheid would not end in his lifetime,[15] and determined to maintain the vigour of South African cricket, he encouraged tours by "rebel" teams from Sri Lanka, England, West Indies and Australia during the 1980s.
Tshwete soon forged an agreement and the two men became friends,[18] travelling to London together in 1991 to successfully apply for South Africa's re-admission to the International Cricket Council.