How the Proteas got on the right track
• The likes of Markram, Bavuma and Magala have broken the shackles holding them back
Sisanda Magala — unfit. Aiden Markram — not fulfilling his talent. Heinrich Klaasen — not good enough. Temba Bavuma — shouldn’t be there.
Not so long ago that was the narrative about players in the national team. Perspectives on SA cricket generally tilted towards the negative. Which was perfectly understandable. The national men’s team, still the most watched cricket side in the country, was bobbing along in a sea of mediocrity in the second half of 2022, having lost Test series in England and Australia — the latter comprehensively.
The T20 World Cup last November held much promise. Then the team suffered a meltdown against the Netherlands and failed to qualify for the semifinals.
Bavuma cut a forlorn figure on his return to the country. Qualification for the 50-over World Cup was made tougher by Cricket SA’s decision to cancel an ODI series with Australia, to have all the nationally contracted players back in the country for the new SA20 tournament.
There had been losses to Bangladesh, at home in 2022, Sri Lanka and Ireland the year before. The Proteas appeared headed for a qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe in the middle of 2023 when pitches in Harare and Bulawayo would be “tired” and even though they would face lower-ranked opposition, those teams would know and pick away at the mental fragility that the Dutch so expertly exposed in Adelaide. They may yet end up in Zimbabwe — but it will take Ireland to perform miraculously in three ODIs against Bangladesh in May. Any loss for the Irish in that series, a rained-out match or a failure to beat SA’s net run rate on the Super League log, will result in the Proteas earning the last automatic qualification spot in India later this year. Even if the Proteas do end up in Zimbabwe, there is a sense they would not shy away from attacking that tournament. Bavuma spoke openly of his acceptance that they may go there, which shows the new attitude of the side.
The tentativeness so apparent in that home series against Bangladesh in 2022, the lack of focus and the inconsistency which that bred, has given way to a team that now talk about playing freely, that is willing to accept they will make mistakes but is firm in their support of one another despite those errors.
“We are on the right track. The more we play and the more we bump our heads and figure things out, it will keep guiding us in the right direction,” said Aiden Markram.
Central to the revival has been Bavuma, playing like a man finally unshackled. He scored three hundreds and an unbeaten 90 in the two formats in which he leads the team. That he accepted the new ethos and illustrated it in the way he did through performances has lifted the rest of the team. “A guy like Temba is a wonderful human being, he’s a great advert for our country. It’s wonderful to share a changeroom with him. That he is playing exceptional cricket is [the] cherry on top for a guy who deserves that and is certainly not given enough credit for what he has gone through,” said limited overs coach Rob Walter.
Bavuma has acknowledged feeling more support in the past few months than at any stage in the past three years. That’ sa familiar theme, which Markram touched on when talking about Sisanda Magala.
“Sisi is a very basic guy. If he’s got backing, he is going to break his back for you,” said Markram, who was Magala’s captain at the Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the SA20. “He’s felt that backing and through a few performances. Naturally, players feel like they belong at this level and they can compete, which he has shown a few times.”
Cynics will be inclined to point out that the opposition recently were “only” the West Indies and the Netherlands. England too were not pressing too hard in that One-Day series as they are still experimenting for the World Cup.
But SA needed to create a new outlook. What happened since January has really been about them and no-one else. Players not good enough, unfit and not fulfilling their promise have a renewed focus — and for now that deserves praise.