Ken Borland

It says much for the important role that KFC Mini-Cricket played in his journey that Temba Bavuma, having just settled back into home life after the exuberant celebrations of the stirring World Test Championship final, was willing to hop on a plane from Cape Town and spend the day in Polokwane as the special guest for their 2025 National Seminar.

Bavuma’s standing as an inspirational figure amongst the grassroots coaches in this country was obvious. And fully justified after he had led his team to a place no Proteas team, in the words of Captain Kirk, had gone before – the podium of a major ICC event.

Fans of the famous Star Trek series celebrate Kirk as being the epitome of a style of leadership that is inventive, self-confident but inclusive, brave and unselfish. As the captain of the Starship Enterprise, Kirk was in charge of a leadership team that was highly diverse, given that the TV series first came out in the 1960s – there was an Asian, a Russian, a Scotsman, a Vulcan and an African-American woman – Uhuru – with whom he shared the first ever inter-racial kiss on U.S. television.

Bavuma brings many of the same attributes and has also successfully knit together a diverse Proteas team that is starting to reflect the realities of modern South Africa.

Back here on Earth, and more specifically in Mzansi, there are huge socio-economic issues that make Bavuma an outlier, one of the lucky few Black sports stars who have been able to escape the grinding poverty of township life and fulfil his talent.

Bavuma has paid his dues in terms of all the work he has put into his career, but he acknowledged that he needed the support of programs like KFC Mini-Cricket and a bit of luck to now be rightfully praised as someone who has changed the history of South African cricket.

“A lot of everything started with KFC Mini-Cricket,” Bavuma told the star-struck audience. “I was six or seven when I started playing mini-cricket in Langa and it was mostly older ladies doing the coaching back then. But they instilled discipline and the memories and friendships you make as a child stay with us.

“I left Langa when I was 11 or 12 and I’ve led a fairly privileged life from then. But I was back there this weekend and I still stay in touch with a coach like Mark Khoabane, it’s great that he’s still contributing to the system. It all starts at grassroots and I remember when the West Indies came to Langa in 1999, you could actually touch Brian Lara and Curtly Ambrose.

“I would like to find a way to close the gap between schools in Langa and a place like Bishops, for example. Because if the resources are not there for our children, then we are just offering them opportunity. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but it can always be done better.

“From my days at KFC Mini-Cricket, I remember the discipline and how you need to arrive at practice. You’ve got to be brave to go for your dream and to keep going. You must stay true to your passion. And you must have fun,” Bavuma said.

The first Black African batsman to play Test cricket for South Africa became the captain of the team in early 2023, against the West Indies, unfortunately making a pair in his first match as skipper. The armband has kept him on the hop since then.

“Captaincy in South Africa is tough, you have to know politics. First, you have to understand who you are as a person and a cricketer, you have to be comfortable with not having all the answers. It’s about knowing your strengths and what you need to work on.

“Fortunately we have a few leaders in the team: KG Rabada leads through his actions, Kesh Maharaj has a cricket brain you cannot beat and Aiden Markram gets to places in the dressing room that I can’t get to,” Bavuma said.

Former Central Gauteng Lions coach Geoff Toyana, now with Easterns, was the driver for much of Bavuma’s success once his family moved to Johannesburg and he graduated from St David’s Marist. He knows what makes the 35-year-old tick as well as anyone, and the World Test Championship final was an emotional time for Toyana too.

“When Temba was at St David’s, he joined Soweto Cricket Club and that’s when we got close. I was then a selector and assistant coach for Ray Jennings in the 2009 SA U19 team and we spent lots of time together at nets, we bonded. I said to him then that one day he would captain the Lions. I didn’t aim high enough!

“I remember when we met with him at the Lions, he came with a notebook full of his plans. He has always been very thorough and organised. He wanted to bat number four for the Lions, but we still had Neil McKenzie and we said he’ll have to learn from him. I became Lions head coach in 2012 and I backed Temba in all formats, he became a regular in the team.

“When Enoch Nkwe took over as coach in 2018, I told him Temba must be made captain this year. When he was chosen for the national team, I was one of the first people he told – his mother first and then me! It’s been a great privilege knowing him and he says I was more excited than he was, but one of my goals as a coach was to produce a Black African batter for the Proteas,” Toyana told kenborland.com.

It was fitting, then, that Bavuma requested that it be Toyana, and former Lions assistant coach Dumisa Makalima, who picked him up at Polokwane Airport. “Geoff was a coach who gave us a sense of peace. He freed us up and allowed us to express ourselves,” Bavuma said.

Due to the hatred that still infests parts of our society, there has always been a lot of negative noise around Bavuma. But diminutive as he is, Bavuma is a man who stands tallest when times are toughest.

“I’m so proud of him,” Toyana said, “the abuse that little man gets. But he has shown incredible resolve and fight and calmness. He can be really proud of what he did.”

Bavuma is now someone who actively mentors the new generation and he shares how he has managed to overcome the vile, often faceless criticism.

“I don’t make everything personal and I don’t take myself too seriously. I focus on what I can control, which is what is happening in my head and my heart. Anything else, I don’t give too much energy to. But it’s not easy and I’ve seen how it affects the younger guys,” the courageous hero said.

Bavuma has largely done his talking with the bat, and lately it has been shouting out his pedigree as one of the very best. In the last five years, he averages 49.77 in Test cricket; his ODI record is also outstanding: averaging 43.97 at a strike-rate of 87.74.

He plays with a technical assurance which not many other South African batsmen can match.

“Temba is one of the few batsmen gifted with the ability to play the ball late,” Toyana exclusively told kenborland.com. “He still calls me to have a look at his head position from time to time, but his biggest skill is seeing the ball early and playing late. He hits the ball under his eyes.

“And under pressure he stays calm. Like he did at Lord’s, he had to really knuckle down, batting through injury, and he produced something special. It’s huge for the country what Temba and his team have achieved. People are excited about Test cricket again and it will help the whole pipeline, with money hopefully now coming in.”

With the celebrations for the epic World Test Championship win now coming to an end [Wiaan Mulder’s magnificence is rather dominating the limelight now], Bavuma has been able to better process what he and the Proteas have achieved.

“We had a lot of points to prove and a lot to play for at Lord’s. We wanted to do something special for the country and Shukri Conrad and Ashwell Prince had both just lost loved ones. People were having a go at KG Rabada after his controversy. Since then, a lot of beers went down but I think we have a proper perspective of what we’ve done.

“It felt like a home game playing away at Lord’s and we could hear all the different chants from the crowd. When we did our lap of honour, the stadium was still half-full, and to have my family there was so special because cricket takes a lot from them.

“To do it at Lord’s, the home of cricket, was also special, and it was against Australia, the old foes. We couldn’t have scripted it any better. When we came home, I’ve never seen the airport like that and it started to give us a sense of what we had done. It’s been crazy. I’ve just tried to embrace the moment and everything it means. But it will probably take a couple of years before we are properly out of the celebrations.

And then, pointing to The Mace, Bavuma said “That was my biggest motivator, to do something that has not been done before by our country. But to pursue something great or something that has not been done before, you know there is going to be struggle.

“You have to keep finding a way to show up every day, and if you really believe in your dream, and you go for it with all your might, then things will align,” Bavuma said.

A triumph on the road is always a boost, but what you gain from winning at home and making the DP World Wanderers Stadium a fortress for the #PrideOfJozi is probably even more important, given the length of the CSA T20 Challenge.

So says DP World Lions men’s bowling coach and South African cricket legend Allan Donald, whose own career was linked so massively with the Bullring.

The DP World Lions may have gone down by four wickets in the last over to the Dolphins at Kingsmead in midweek for the first loss of our campaign, but Donald preferred to give credit to the opposition rather than worry about a rare off night for the team in one of the most difficult places in the country for visiting teams.

As such, our Pride, and Donald especially, are really keyed up for two massive home games coming up this weekend, against the Momentum Multiply Titans on Friday evening and the in-form World Sports Betting Western Province team on Sunday afternoon.

“It looked a beautiful pitch in Durban, absolute gun for batting, but then it nipped a little and it was tough to hit down the ground. The Dolphins bowled exceptionally well to use that bit of nip, and for us to get to 155 I thought was really good,” Donald said.

“We took two early wickets but then Bryce Parsons played magnificently and he had really good support at the end, he took his chances against spin. And yet we still managed to take it to the last over against a side that knows how to play there, it’s a tough place, and all credit to them because they were zero-for-two in the competition.

“But this competition is a marathon and you need to be very patient. Now we have two derbies against the Titans and Western Province that are always very closely-contested, and I think they are going to be two absolute crackers based on the pitch we had against the Rocks.

“We’re coming up against two quality teams and home games are massive. I expect a run-fest and whoever defends best will win. It will be a battle of inches and the bravery and execution and skill of the players is going to be tested to the limit,” Donald said.

Rickelton took advantage of an excellent wicket in the DP World Lions’ opening match against Boland to blaze his way to 75 off 39 balls, and his clean striking will again be a key factor at the Wanderers on Friday and Sunday.

But it is a revitalised Temba Bavuma who is top of the national averages after his fluent 53 not out off 40 balls against the Dolphins kept the Pride in the game. Rassie van der Dussen and Reeza Hendricks have also made good runs in the T20 campaign already and Mitchell van Buuren showed his progression in the shortest format in the SA20.

“Temba batted exceptionally well on a slow pitch and Mitchell was batting beautifully too. Winning at home is a massive deal and I’m sure all those guys are going to step up,” Donald said.

With batsmen expected to hold sway, it is perhaps the wicket-taking ability of the attacks that will be vital in stemming the flow of runs. For the DP World Lions, there can be no-one better than the graceful Kagiso Rabada, with the action as smooth as silk but delivering lethal weapons, to lead their attack.

Left-arm quick Kwena Maphaka will be alongside him again and the 17-year-old has made an incredibly smooth transition to senior domestic cricket.

“It’s so nice to see the national team players like KG turning out for us, it really gives the team a boost and they bring a lot of calmness,” Donald said. “And the more I watch Kwena, the more I realise he is just something else. He’s only 17 years old but he’s not scared, he doesn’t take a backwards step.

“It’s going to be great to see how he does and it’s going to be a wonderful festival at the DP World Wanderers this weekend. It won’t be easy to defend, we’ll have to be extremely smart and decision-making is going to come to the fore. When things are really tight, which is likely against two very good teams, that’s when you need to be on the money,” Donald said.

Harlequins will be the first Champions Cup team to be hosted at Kings Park, bringing an entertaining brand of rugby, but Sharks prop Ox Nche said on Tuesday that it is important they do not offer their English opponents any freedom on the field on Saturday.

Harlequins have won their last four matches and are in the top three in the English Premiership.

“Harlequins are going to be a good challenge, they have been playing well,” Nche said on Tuesday. “They are dangerous and they score most of their tries within three phases of a set-piece.

“So that’s pretty similar to the URC, relying on the set-piece to attack from, but they can also run from anywhere, they have a more attacking mindset than the teams in the URC.

“Quins are more unpredictable, they want to play with ball-in-hand and they will even run from their own five-metre line. They are willing to take much more risks.

“But they have such a successful strike-rate from set-piece that it is very important for us to put that under pressure, to disrupt their set-pieces. We have to neutralise a guy like Andre Esterhuizen, who is a big ball-carrier on the gain-line,” Nche said.

While the musical chairs that has been going on in the Sharks coaching set-up has seen the players lose a good friend in Sean Everitt, Nche said their focus is on moving on and ensuring they make their mark in the Champions Cup.

“There’s always a certain level of relationship and respect with your coach – he has confidence in you and he backed your talent – so you feel for him and his family.

“But as professionals we understand these things happen. As a player, if things don’t go well then you might not get a contract. The team is always more important, and sometimes hard things have to be done to keep getting better.

“We need to move on as quickly as possible to our next challenge and we want to show we belong in the Champions Cup. We want to put Sharks rugby on a pedestal and make our names.

“We have all our experience back and we want to see if we belong with the best in the world, and we are very positive and full of energy, we’re pretty excited,” Nche said.

The Bulls planted plenty of attacking seeds and the important ones bore fruit as they showed they remain one of the best sides in the United Rugby Championship at home, thumping Cardiff 45-9 at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday night.

Cardiff were certainly more competitive than the scoreline suggests, but they lacked the same ability to convert chances in the 22, while the Bulls also deserve credit for a stout defensive effort.

But it was the Bulls attack that will be the focus as they scored six tries to stay fourth on the URC log. Not every pass stuck for the Bulls though, there were plenty of handling errors, but they won comfortably just through the sheer number of chances the combination of strong forward carries and a dashing, inventive backline creates.

The Bulls took a while to find their flow and Cardiff were leading 6-3 as the half-hour approached through two Jarrod Evans penalties. But when the home side finally managed to hang on to possession for several phases, fullback Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie combined superbly to send the wing over for the opening try. Their work in tandem was beautiful to watch right through the match.

Another Evans penalty meant the Bulls were only 10-9 ahead as halftime approached, but the home side made a crucial strike on the hooter as they won a scrum penalty, set the lineout and flyhalf Johan Goosen put Arendse over for the try.

The Bulls, leading 17-9 at the break, continued to gain great dividends from their combination of power and pace and flair in the second half.

Goosen split the defence and scored three minutes after halftime as the Bulls took firm control with a 24-9 lead. They were on the back foot for the next 15 minutes, but dug in in defence, with Cardiff’s maul a threat, but a weapon they failed to capitalise on through their own errors.

The Bulls then buried Cardiff in the final quarter with three more tries. Penetrative eighthman Elrigh Louw made big inroads off the back of a lineout, lock Ruan Nortje then crashing over for the try.

Arendse then produced a lovely little dink-kick over the top of the defensive line for Moodie to score his second try, while Louw scored a deserved try with three minutes remaining as he went over from a brilliantly-deceptive splinter-maul.

Scorers

Bulls: Tries – Canan Moodie (2), Kurt-Lee Arendse, Johan Goosen, Ruan Nortje, Elrigh Louw. Conversions – Goosen (5), Chris Smith. Penalty – Goosen.

Cardiff: Penalties – Jarrod Evans (3).