Ken Borland

If Temba Bavuma received any advice from his predecessors as Proteas captain it was probably to beware of the suits and the victorious skipper said after their amazing ODI series whitewash of India that one of the hardest parts of his job has been managing the off-field distractions.

The Cricket South Africa board’s antipathy towards their players came to a head on the eve of the ODI series when they charged head coach Mark Boucher with gross misconduct, due to allegations made by the flawed Social Justice and Nation-Building report that more than 20 years ago the record-breaking wicketkeeper sang a team song that contained racial slurs.

This after the Proteas had pulled off a remarkable Test series win over India, knocking them off the No.1 ranking. The tremendous fight the team has been showing, and their clear growth in terms of skills and composure, make it clear that it must be a happy changeroom and a healthy environment. Which is now seemingly under attack from their own board.

“It has not been easy, to be honest,” Bavuma said after completing the 3-0 win with a thrilling four-run win at Newlands. “There have been a lot of dynamics that need to be managed.

“The big thing is to try and keep the cricket as the main focus. It’s been a really challenging time for the players and management, because we’ve been under a lot of scrutiny.

“So I’ve had to manage the conversations we’re having and ensure that our energies are 100% towards performance. It’s been a challenge, but a privilege as well, and I’ve enjoyed it,” Bavuma said.

A dominant batting display by the Proteas, who for so long struggled in that department, saw Bavuma call his fellow batsmen a “revelation”.

“The batting unit has really been a revelation for us. Before we were scoring fifties and sixties and then finding a way to get out. But the coach gave us a challenge to start making hundreds.

“We scored three of them and we now have five guys averaging more than 40 in ODIs, which gives us a lot of confidence. It’s a formidable batting line-up,” Bavuma said.

Apart from topping the Test series averages (73.66), Bavuma also averaged 51 in the ODIs. Clearly the captaincy has agreed with him.

“It seems to have had a knock-on effect in my own performance. I enjoy the thinking side, the tactical side, and maybe that has made me a bit more clearer on what I want to do.

“I’m always thinking about the situations, how to counter, and maybe that’s why my form came back. For me, it means a lot to look back on the series and I know I contributed significantly.

“It makes it even better and to convincingly beat an Indian team of that calibre and pedigree speaks a lot to my captaincy.

“It’s still early days in my captaincy career though, I’ll take the acknowledgement but I definitely won’t get ahead of myself,” Bavuma said.

by Guest Correspondent

It seems strange to believe that the powerful 1.86m, 90kg winger Madosh Tambwe, who once scored a Vodacom Super Rugby record-equalling four tries in one match, was completely surprised when he received a phone call from Bulls coach Jake White, inviting him to join the Pretoria team.

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“Receiving a phone call from Jake was quite a surprise. I never expected a call from him, and then I also wondered how he’d even got my number,” Tambwe says with a laugh.

The reality is that Tambwe’s life has been full of surprises up to this point of joining one of world rugby’s most celebrated teams.

The 23-year-old forms part of Vodacom’s current focus on the growing crop of ‘Future Champs’ within the Bulls fold.

Born in Kinshasha during the transition of the country from Zaire to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tambwe moved to South Africa with his family and was raised in Johannesburg. In his final years as a student at Parktown Boys’ High and while playing for the Lions U19 team, Tambwe was confronted for the first time by somebody who gave him a dream to aim for.

The Lions U19 coach, Joey Mongalo (who has since also joined the Vodacom Bulls’ senior coaching staff), asked him what he planned to do with his life. It was the spark that put him on his journey to a career as a professional rugby player, and which has seen him play for the Lions, Sharks and now the Vodacom Bulls before the age of 23.

“Being asked what you want to do with your life is a very tricky question because everybody is on a different journey in their lives. But now I’ve been blessed to have played for three great South African franchises. Right now, I’m focused on settling in at the Vodacom Bulls and focusing on my rugby. That’s where my mind is at the moment,” he says.

Tambwe identified himself as a clear ‘Future Champ’ when he equalled the record of four Vodacom Super Rugby tries which he scored in a 2018 match for the Lions against the Stormers. It is this early success in the game that he wants to keep building on as he now pulls on the famed blue jersey of the Bulls.

“I’m privileged to play for the Vodacom Bulls. As I’ve approached everything in my life, I’ll embrace the moment and take it one step at a time and not think too far ahead.”

Tambwe admits he’s already being challenged to grow at the Vodacom Bulls and is relishing this new environment.

“The coaching staff is challenging me quite a bit. Coach Jake wants me to stretch my wings a bit in terms of my positions, and he’s asked me to study fullback as well so I can act as cover for the team in this position. That’s a challenge, and I like that. I’m kept on my toes here, and I’m not being allowed to get too comfortable in just one position.”

And as much as he feels privileged to pull on a Vodacom Bulls jersey, Tambwe is also adamant that he isn’t thinking too far into the future in terms of what it means to play for a union that has produced some of the greatest players in the history of the game.

“It will always be a great responsibility when you put on that Bulls jersey. There’s such a rich history here. But first and foremost, I want to earn my stripes at this union. Only then can I start thinking about the future. Sure, in the back of my mind there is the thought that I want to carry on where some of the greats have left off and I want to also leave something for the next generation of Vodacom Bulls players to build on. But for now, I just want to be the best I can and focus on the next game in front of me.”

His focus matches the entire ethos about what it means to be identified as a Vodacom Future Champ and represent the future of the Bulls.

“I’ve got a great hunger to learn and be better, and I strive to be the best I can be. I’m doing what I love, and every weekend I am able to showcase my talent for people to enjoy. I want to keep getting better so I can add to the proud legacy of this team,” Tambwe says.

The Sharks team look to flyhalf Curwin Bosch for direction and on Friday night against the Free State Cheetahs at Kings Park they also received a matchwinning performance from the Springbok, according to coach Sean Everitt.

The Sharks bumbled their way to a 19-13 win in a Super Rugby Unlocked match that was strewn with errors from both sides, and it was Bosch who hauled the home team over the line by slotting all five of his kicks at goal, bombarding the Cheetahs with towering up-and-unders and also providing the pinpoint crosskick for the decisive try by replacement wing Madosh Tambwe.

“When you have a flyhalf like Curwin then the team look to him for direction and he did an excellent job. His kicking was pinpoint and the chasers did very well too. Curwin is playing with a lot of confidence at the moment and if we get the contestable kicking right then we are a very difficult team to play against.

“We like to play what’s in front of us and Curwin is vital for that. The Cheetahs had good line-speed and they put him under pressure, but he won that battle and with his kicking game he’s able to counteract that rush defence,” Everitt said after the hard-fought win.

While the television broadcaster’s staff gave the impression that conditions in Durban were ideal, Everitt confirmed that it was in fact a typically humid summer’s evening on the sub-tropical east coast, which partly explained the multitude of basic errors made by both teams.

“They were difficult conditions and it was a very physical contest. In order to combat the humidity, we went for contestable kicks and they were extremely difficult to handle. The conditions were very similar to the early rounds of Super Rugby at the start of the year and it was very difficult to hold on to the ball,” Everitt explained.

Parliament’s sports portfolio committee duly received the full Fundudzi Report into the forensic affairs of Cricket South Africa on Friday, but not without having to go through legal gymnastics such as signing a non-disclosure agreement.

The members of the committee could get some decent weight training in if they print out the 486-page report and lug it around over the weekend. CSA were scheduled to meet again with the sports portfolio committee early next week, but depending on how much weekend leisure time the politicians are willing to give up, that could well be postponed given how long it will take to study the report properly.

A summary of the report was released to the media and other stakeholders, but not to parliament, by Cricket South Africa earlier in the week, much to the ire of the sports portfolio committee. They demanded that the full, unredacted report be given to them by close of business on Friday and CSA have complied.

While the summary focused on the failures and misdeeds of former CEO Thabang Moroe, it has caused a legal kerfuffle elsewhere in terms of some of the other names that were mentioned. CSA have been at pains to point out that the report has not been tested in court and is only the opinion and recommendations of the Fundudzi investigators. But already the other people named such as CSA human resources director Chantel Moon and parliamentary liaison officer Unathi Tshotwana, who has allegedly been exposed as being Service Provider X, have been tarnished without being given the opportunity to respond.

CSA issued a statement on Friday evening saying they had asked the chairperson of the sports portfolio committee, Beauty Dlulane, to declare the report as confidential.

“CSA has noted the public statement by the chairperson of the PPC to the effect that the PPC will sign a non-disclosure agreement in respect of the forensic report.  As such, and in accordance with the recommendation of the relevant Parliamentary Senior Legal Adviser, CSA has requested the chairperson of the PPC to make a ruling in terms of the relevant provisions of the Rules of the National Assembly, declaring that the forensic report is a confidential document.

“As publicly stated by CSA on various occasions and public platforms, the contents of the forensic report are confidential at this stage because it is a provisional report, because aspects of the report are subject to further investigation, and because public dissemination of the report at this stage may impair the integrity of the investigation process and undermine the implementation of remedial steps by CSA. It is for these reasons that CSA has, at this stage, released to the media a summary of the report, recording the substance of the provisional findings,” the statement said.

The full report, unlike the summary which was put together by CSA’s lawyers Bowmans, was sent to parliament directly by Fundudzi, so there should not be any redactions.

CSA did add that they would be consulting with Sascoc with a view to giving their president the report on the same basis as the sports portfolio committee.

But don’t expect any huge revelations to be coming out on social media over the weekend, because the lawyers have held sway.