Temba Bavuma is looking to start his tenure as Proteas Test captain with a series win over his beloved West Indies.
Black South African cricket lovers have naturally had a soft spot for the West Indies as they helped people of colour to gravitate towards cricket even during the dark days of apartheid.
In the 1990s and 2000s stars from the Caribbean island such as Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo, and Darren Sammy among many were seen as representation figures by aspiring black cricketers in SA and Bavuma was no different. In fact he made his Test debut in 2014 against the West Indies.
Today at SuperSport Park (10am) Bavuma will open another chapter of his Test career against the team he grew up supporting, captaining his nation in the five-day format after he replaced Dean Elgar recently.
“Growing up, the West Indies was the team that I supported, it was the team I always saw on TV. My uncles supported them, I guess there’s always been that sentiment when it comes to the West Indies,” Bavuma told the media yesterday.
“Having my debut as the captain against them, that’s probably another thing that’s part of that Temba story. Hopefully, things can go well, I think I made 10 runs on my debut, it was not much of a debut to make noise about, but hopefully, with this debut, it will be a bit better,” he said.
Following the success of the SA20, the ODI series win over England and the Proteas Women finishing as runners-up in the Women’s T20 World Cup, there is plenty of excitement around SA cricket.
The Test team is also heading to a new era after hitting an all-time low in the summer against Australia. With coach Shukri Conrad at the helm and Bavuma as captain, there’s optimism about the future of red-ball cricket in SA.
“It’s the start of a new journey, we would like to start on a clean slate and go out there and play the way we want to play, in terms of how we want to go about our business. We want to see how it will look on the field of play,” Bavuma said.
Temba's chance to lead against 'his' team
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Image: Lee Warren
Temba Bavuma is looking to start his tenure as Proteas Test captain with a series win over his beloved West Indies.
Black South African cricket lovers have naturally had a soft spot for the West Indies as they helped people of colour to gravitate towards cricket even during the dark days of apartheid.
In the 1990s and 2000s stars from the Caribbean island such as Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo, and Darren Sammy among many were seen as representation figures by aspiring black cricketers in SA and Bavuma was no different. In fact he made his Test debut in 2014 against the West Indies.
Today at SuperSport Park (10am) Bavuma will open another chapter of his Test career against the team he grew up supporting, captaining his nation in the five-day format after he replaced Dean Elgar recently.
“Growing up, the West Indies was the team that I supported, it was the team I always saw on TV. My uncles supported them, I guess there’s always been that sentiment when it comes to the West Indies,” Bavuma told the media yesterday.
“Having my debut as the captain against them, that’s probably another thing that’s part of that Temba story. Hopefully, things can go well, I think I made 10 runs on my debut, it was not much of a debut to make noise about, but hopefully, with this debut, it will be a bit better,” he said.
Following the success of the SA20, the ODI series win over England and the Proteas Women finishing as runners-up in the Women’s T20 World Cup, there is plenty of excitement around SA cricket.
The Test team is also heading to a new era after hitting an all-time low in the summer against Australia. With coach Shukri Conrad at the helm and Bavuma as captain, there’s optimism about the future of red-ball cricket in SA.
“It’s the start of a new journey, we would like to start on a clean slate and go out there and play the way we want to play, in terms of how we want to go about our business. We want to see how it will look on the field of play,” Bavuma said.
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