Bavuma is unlikely to be involved in South Africa’s next major challenge, the T20 World Cup, but he feels the fallout from the WTC win will leap the divide between formats ©Getty
Something gleamed backstage at CSA’s awards in Johannesburg on Thursday night. It lay still and untouched in the darkness while, out front, the party was starting.
Around 500 people, many of them dressed to comply with the evening’s theme of “gloriously glittering”, were abuzz with the excitement of finally – after 27 years – having something to celebrate.
Proceedings started with South Africa’s national anthem, then suddenly there it was: the ICC Test mace itself, held aloft in triumph by Temba Bavuma. Just like he had done in the giddy afterglow of victory over Australia in the WTC final at Lord’s in June, and many times since.
And just as suddenly as it appeared on Thursday night, the mace vanished from view. Bavuma, who marched briskly, almost abruptly, across the stage, went with it even as the wave of applause that greeted his and the trophy’s arrival reached its crest.
Bavuma might have basked in the moment, surely. Like he duly did last week when he and his players paraded their prize around Langa, his hometown 13 kilometres from the centre of Cape Town.
But, on Thursday’s evidence, it looked like the mace no longer gleamed quite so shinily for Bavuma. Had he grown bored with showing it off? Quite the opposite.
“It gets bigger and bigger every time we have an opportunity to meet people on the ground with the mace,” Bavuma said later in the evening. Last week in Langa had been “heartwarming, emotional” and “gave us a proper essence of what we’ve done”.
Bavuma looked forward to more of the same: “We have another year-and-a-half to celebrate being the champions, and it will happen a lot more.” He had in fact enjoyed his short, sharp walk on Thursday: “To see everyone here happy that the mace came out tonight tells us we’ve done something special.”
Seeing sporting silverware on display in South Africa is more commonly connected with rugby; the Springboks have won a record four men’s World Cups. Cricket’s place in the public consciousness hasn’t been burnished nearly as brightly.
“If you think of success in South African sport, you think of rugby. Whenever the rugby guys go to a world event there’s a proper belief that they can go the whole way. The expectation is high.
“From a cricketing point of view, yes, we’ve gone [to global competitions] with hope. But maybe we haven’t gone with enough belief. What we’ve done now will take that away.
“We want to unite people [as cricketers], but you can’t do that if you don’t have success behind you. That’s why rugby is seen in that light. In cricket, we’re slowly but surely getting closer to that. That’s part of our vision.”
Not that he was fooling himself that everything had changed: “We’ve achieved something that’s miraculous or monumental. But the road is still long – legacy is not achieved in 18 months. We’d be naive to think we don’t have a target on our back now.
“Teams will be eyeing us out. They’ll be wanting us to prove what we’ve done. That it’s not a fluke, that we didn’t have an easy way [to the final]. What we’ve achieved is only part of our journey.”
Bavuma is unlikely to be involved in South Africa’s next major challenge, the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka and India in February and March. But he feels the fallout from the WTC win will leap the divide between formats: “I do sense and believe there will be a shift in trust and faith.”
Aiden Markram, South Africa’s T20I captain, will hope that’s true. “To be able to be at home and see what [winning the WTC] has meant to people has been cool,” Markram told a press conference on Friday.
He is part of the white-ball squads who will go to Australia on Saturday to play three matches in each format. After that it’s back to England for another three ODIs and T20Is. The second ODI will take Markram back to the scene of his 137, which had everything to do with South Africa winning the WTC final. Something important to that vital innings is unlikely to return to Lord’s.
“I only used one bat,” Markram said. “I’ll probably retire it and keep it special and safe.”
Bats don’t gleam, but they can get the party started as well as any trophy.
© Cricbuzz
