South African captain Temba Bavuma described his team’s emotional five-wicket victory against Australia in the final of the World Test Championship at Lord’s on Saturday as a “…massive, massive trophy” for him, the team and the country.
“The senior players, Aiden, myself, KG and Kesh, this connects us, this is what we've always wanted to do. We recognise that the sun shines on us and we have the responsibility of doing something that has never been done before.
“I heard it's 26 or 27 years that we’ve been trying to win an ICC trophy, so to be a part of that history is massive in a lot of ways. And we hope that this could be the start of something, that there could be more. It's a massive, massive trophy,” Bavuma said.
The inevitable comparisons with the success of rugby’s Springboks were also embraced by cricket’s captain: “The biggest thing I admire about their success is how they've embraced what being South African actually means. South Africa, we're unique in a lot of ways. Our present and future is shaped by our past,” Bavuma said.
“The way they've gone about it, to capture the hearts of everyone, has really made us love them. Us within cricket, that's something that we've spoken about, to really do something special. For the country, it's a chance for us to rejoice in something, for us to kind of forget about our issues and really come together,” Bavuma said.
The captain tried hard to deflect post-match attention from himself back to the team but it has not been a smooth journey for the 35-year-old who admitted that the national captaincy had never been an ambition as a young player. He would have been happy simply silencing the doubters about his place in the team – but even that took many years.
“I guess this is a moment to be recognised as more than just a black African cricketer, to be seen as someone who's, who's done something that the country has wanted for a long time. So, I'll definitely walk around with my, with my chest out. But again, I can only hope that it inspires young kids, the next generation of cricketers and even our country,” Bavuma said.
“nobody can take this away from us, right? Maybe we’ve won over a few doubters. It's not an easy job being captain of South Africa and it’s not a smooth ride being in my shoes, it’s a little crazy at times to, but it’s still somewhat of a privilege to carry those expectations as well as the pressure,” Bavuma said.
On the field Bavuma’s third wicket partnership of 147 with centurion and player-of-the-match, Aiden Markram, will be remembered not just for doing most to win the match but also for the courage Bavuma displayed in continuing to bat with a seriously strained hamstring.
“Yes, I wasn't at a hundred per cent fitness, but I felt I was good enough to at least support Aiden. It was a tough decision but I backed my gut feel. It went against the advice from our management but I was willing to take responsibility for the consequences and I took comfort from the confidence Aiden had in me: he said ‘we need to be there – if we can be there at the end of the (third) day then the game is strongly in our favour.’ So I chose to carry on,” Bavuma said.
Although it is South Africa’s first ICC trophy since the inaugural Champions Trophy in 1998 it is not the first time they have ‘owned’ the test mace. Graeme Smith’s team won the trophy when they claimed the No 1 ranking in 2012 and retained it for over two years. Bavuma is well aware of the record:
“Yes, we've created history, but as a group we'd like to emulate, if not do better than what Graeme’s team did. They’ve set the standard and nobody has reached that standard as of yet. So, in two or three, maybe four years we’d like to have victories in India and Pakistan, do a lot more. You know, we've only had two years,” said a smiling Proteas captain.