After attending Falcon College in Rhodesia, Goldstein was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to St Edmund Hall, Oxford in 1965.
[5] Wisden noted that "Goldstein, in his first year, hit form straight away with an impressive combination of solid defence and enterprising strokes".
Wisden noted that he "on occasions gave the innings a thrilling start with his powerful hitting, but there were other times when he lost his wicket through attempting to be too aggressive when the situation demanded caution".
[16] Other boisterous innings included 76 in pursuit of victory against Lancashire, when he hit three successive sixes off the bowling of Jack Simmons and was second out with the score on 92.
[17] He also captained a combined Oxford and Cambridge XI against the touring West Indies cricket team, scoring 78 in 80 minutes.
He made his highest limited-overs score of 91 in the semi-final of the 1974–75 Gillette Cup to help Western Province into the final.
[29] Goldstein worked at the University of Cape Town (UCT) Information Technology Department for many years, starting in 1971 as Senior Systems Programmer and becoming a professor.
As Director of the Information Technology Department, he provided support at a policy and strategic level to set up an internet link between UCT and Rhodes University in Grahamstown.