WTC winning skipper Bavuma admits team was "driven by hurt" of past ICC events, wants SA to get more Tests

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], October 7 (ANI): South Africa's ICC World Test Championship (WTC) winning captain Temba Bavuma called the title win a "massive step forward" and admitted that a lot of players in the team were "driven by hurt" caused by knockout stage/final losses in previous ICC events.

History was created at Lord's in London as Aiden Markram's exquisite 136 in 207 balls and Bavuma's gutsy 66 run knock despite a hamstring injury powered South Africa to their first-ever major world title in cricket across any format in June this year as they chased down 282 set by defending champions Australia.

Just before this, SA had lost to India in the T20 World Cup 2024 final by seven runs and endured a heartbreaking loss to Australia in the WC 2023 semifinal in India. Except for a Champions Trophy win back in 1998, SA had nothing in their trophy cabinet despite their immense talent pool.

Bavuma spoke on the sidelines of the CEAT Cricket Rating Awards in Mumbai on Tuesday.

While reflecting on the team's WTC win, Bavuma said, "I think firstly on the achievement for the team, for the country, it was a massive step forward. I think obviously as a team we went into the WTC cycle with ambitions of going all the way, of being in the final. And then once we got into the final, we wanted to see how far we could go."

"Obviously as a country, South Africa, we have had a lot of heartache when it comes to finals, when it comes to ICC events. So a lot of the players in the team are driven by that hurt, and wanting to do something different for the country. So in terms of that it was massive, even for myself as a leader, coming in as a captain a couple of years ago," he added.

Bavuma admitted that throughout the whole cycle, there were doubts over his leadership and he was still learning his own game and himself as a person.

"There was a lot of friction within Cricket South Africa at the time. So as a young captain it was quite tricky to deal with. And then obviously from a team perspective, we want to do good stuff, we want to be seen amongst the best of the world. Again, coming after the likes of AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, so it was quite a stiff task at that time," he continued.

"And that journey, it has not been an easy one, it has not been a simple one. But that spirit or the character of not giving up, of persevering through it all, I think the WTC win put that into a lot of perspective," he concluded his point.

Bavuma admitted that South Africa is not a "financial powerhouse" in cricket like England, Australia and India and them winning the WTC spoke "a lot of good for the game of cricket internationally."

"We would love to play a lot more games as a country. We would like to continue testing ourselves against the best countries in the world, against the best players in the world. I think performances like that will go a long way in happening," he added.

Speaking on the much-debated two-tier WTC system, Bavuma said that it is important that the game is "evenly spread" to all nations.

"Yes, I understand the advantage of strong, strong teams playing against strong teams. But for those other smaller teams, so-called smaller teams to continue growing, they need to be testing themselves as well against the stronger opposition. But I think probably the biggest thing is just more the equitable distribution between games amongst the top cricketing nations," he added.

SA invited a lot of criticism last year when they sent a second-string side to New Zealand for a Test tour captained by an uncapped player, Neil Brand, in February, while the main players were busy playing in SA20, which had also been given a January-February window.

Bavuma said that at that time, seniors felt that they might have compromised on their chances of reaching the WTC final as the second-string team was beaten easily. The skipper does not want to find his team in the same spot ever again.

"Look, I mean, further to that, there has been positive, constructive engagement with Cricket South Africa with the necessary decision makers to ensure that we do not find ourselves in those positions."

"You know, we cannot be preaching and saying that test cricket is the Holy Grail. We cannot be trying to inspire the younger guys to pursue test cricket when we are making decisions that seemingly are not putting test cricket where it was. So, hopefully, we do not find ourselves in that situation again," he added.

Bavuma also reflected pride on how after that series loss, SA was undefeated in every other series and were crowned the champions.

On playing more Test matches at home to a recent trend of just hosting two Tests, Bavuma, highlighting India's tour to SA at 2023-end which ended 1-1, expressed that the team wants to play more Tests.

"From a player's point of view, we want to play as much cricket as we can. I think I remember that series I was watching from the sidelines. We won the first one in Centurion (against India)," he said.

"India won the second one in Newlands. And I think at the end of the series, it was almost a case of we needed another game to see who was the better team for that time. And that is what the fans want to see."

I guess from a structural point of view, which I am not 100 per cent clear on in terms of the negotiations with the rounds to the schedule and the games. You know, I think we probably want to be a little bit more stronger as Cricket South Africa to push for a three-match series against India or England or Australia. Whoever really is playing very good cricket at the time. But the sentiment from us, we'd like to play a lot more test cricket," Bavuma concluded. (ANI)

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