South Africa have a lot of positives to pick from the concluded ODI World Cup, as they were eliminated by Australia in the semi-finals. The team finished second in the league table, and produced one impressive performance after another. Despite the good display, their captain Temba Bavuma received a lot of criticism for his leadership of the team, as well as his place in the team.
Almost a week after South Africa’s exit from the tournament, Bavuma interacts with… Daily Maverick She opened up about the criticism.
“I said from the beginning that if any of the players stood there and said: ‘Temba, you are not the right man for the captain’s job’, I would gladly leave. That is the group of players we have.” “We’ve been together since 2020. We know each other in every sense of the word, and we know what we’re playing for. I’m not the guy on Twitter or Facebook.”
Bavuma then referred to South Africa’s World Cup run, where they won seven out of the ten matches they participated in. Like India, who finished as runners-up, South Africa too were very dominant on both fronts barring a shocking stumble in front of them. Holland. India and Australia are the other two teams to have defeated South Africa in the tournament.
“I don’t know what the standard is to judge someone if they lead a team well. We’ve won the most group stage matches of any South African team. We’ve beaten teams that haven’t been beaten for a while in the world. Cups, so what? What metrics will we use to judge whether a person is using the job as a leader?” Bavuma asked.
If we look at Bavuma’s individual contribution, the Proteas skipper could only muster 145 runs in eight matches at an average of 18.13 and a strike rate of 73.60 without a half-century. He missed two of South Africa’s league stage matches against England and Bangladesh due to a stomach ailment.