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.

Ruan Nortje has not captained a team before at senior level, but the willing second-row forward sees his new responsibility as an exciting adventure after he was confirmed as the new Bulls captain for the rest of the season on Thursday.

With Marcell Coetzee enjoying a sabbatical in Japan for the next few months, the Bulls needed a new leader and director of rugby Jake White has gone for one of the team’s inspirational young guns. Nortje has also been surrounded by an exciting young leadership group including potential future Loftus Versfeld legends like Elrigh Louw and Johann Grobbelaar.

“I’m very excited for the challenge and it’s an unbelievably big privilege. I captained a team maybe one or two times in high school but never at professional level or anything,” Nortje said.

“As a lineout leader, there’s also a lot of pressure, and doing that has definitely helped me gain confidence and I’ve learnt a lot about leadership. But I don’t know how I will feel running out in front on Saturday.

“I’ve known about it for a while and had a long time to get my head right for it. It’s another step on my journey towards my greater goals at the Bulls.

“Marcell asked me for a lot of advice on the field and I’ve learnt a lot from him. But the one message from him that stood out was to be myself as captain, don’t try too hard, just lead by example,” Nortje said.

One senses a new, young leadership group fits in perfectly with White’s long-term plan for the Bulls, with the director of rugby recently extending his contract at Loftus Versfeld through to June 2027. While there are still some richly experienced and massively respected older players at the Bulls, the new guard is starting to push itself to the forefront.

“It’s been coming a while, from last season already it came up that Marcell was probably going to go away for a Japan stint,” Nortje said. “Both Marcell and Jake spoke to me about how I would feel about the captaincy. It’s all been done in a systematic way, not just suddenly decided one morning.

“From the first time I played for the Bulls, I think of all the legends who have played before in the number five jersey whenever I put it on. Like Victor Matfield, who I will also follow now in his footsteps as captain.

“It’s a big motivation and when under pressure, I feel the best comes out of me. And I’m always chuffed and excited to play every weekend and give my 100%,” Nortje said.

The Bulls will return to United Rugby Championship action on Saturday when they host the Ospreys in Pretoria.

Former New Zealand captain Sean Fitzpatrick is willing to endorse the Six Nations as the best tournament in rugby outside of the World Cup, but the All Blacks great believes it would be a terrible idea for South Africa to join that Northern Hemisphere competition.

Speculation has been rife recently that the world champion Springboks will follow their domestic franchises into European rugby, breaking from their traditional Sanzaar alliance with New Zealand, Australia and Argentina, and joining France, Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales, and maybe Italy, in a new-look Six Nations.

“The Six Nations is arguably the best tournament outside the World Cup,” Fitzpatrick told a Laureus World Sports Academy media opportunity on Wednesday. “The first three rounds have been compelling viewing.

“There has obviously been a lot of talk in New Zealand and up north about South Africa joining, but why add to something when it is not broken? I don’t like the idea of Southern Hemisphere teams in the Six Nations because the history of the competition is Northern Hemisphere.

“And I don’t think the Southern Hemisphere can afford to lose South Africa from the Rugby Championship, it will be devastating to lose them. If they join, it would be a Seven Nations because Italy can’t just be ejected, they have a right of veto.

“So starting a new competition would add a pretty big new international window. It would be a sad day for rugby,” Fitzpatrick said.

The current form of the All Blacks has many of their fans already having kittens, but the chairman of the Laureus World Sport Academy said he was confident they were on track, while acknowledging the demise of the old Super Rugby competition that included South Africa has hurt them.

“Ian Foster [head coach] knows where he is going for sure,” Fitzpatrick said. “Traditionally the All Blacks have not worked on four-year cycles, they try and win every year.

“But I think this time they are building for the World Cup. The results have been disappointing but Ian has exposed a lot of players to international rugby. In 2019 they were exposed a bit in the heat of World Cup battle.

“Super Rugby has not turned out to be the competition it should be. Super Rugby Aoteroa in 2020 was fantastic, everyone loved it, coming back to New Zealand, it was very tribal.

“But last year was different and we’ve missed South Africa. Super 12 was such a good product, but they got greedy going to 14, 16, 18 teams and it blew out because it was unsustainable,” Fitzpatrick said.

The Proteas batsmen are prepared for flat wickets or tricky pitches at the T20 World Cup in the UAE, and are also willing to shoulder the responsibility of the top six scoring the majority of the runs due to the bottom of South Africa’s batting line-up being rather large, veteran slugger David Miller said on Wednesday.

South Africa’s strength during their recent winning run in T20 cricket has definitely been their bowling attack, especially their trio of spinners, but that also means they have a long tail. Gone are the days of frontline bowlers like Lance Klusener, Shaun Pollock and Nicky Boje also being dangerous batsmen down the order.

“There’s been a lot of chat about the slower pitches and the one for our warm-up against Afghanistan was a bit low and slow,” Miller said in Abu Dhabi. “I expect they’ll get slower as we go along in the tournament too.

“The pitches in Dubai and Sharjah weren’t too bad in the IPL and if there’s dew then the ball slides on nicely. But only our last game is at night. We are also well-prepared though if the wicket is good.

“We have to be mindful of our tail, but we’ve had that for some time and we’re aware of it. But our all-rounders are seriously dangerous batsmen too and we feel we have a strong enough batting unit.

“Ultimately we want the bulk of our runs to come from the top six and if we don’t do that then we probably don’t deserve to win games. It’s the responsibility of the batsmen and lately we’ve been able to find ways of getting winning scores,” Miller said.

The powerful left-hander says his current role in the team is to guide the middle-order, as befits a man with his experience, even though he has had a spell batting in the top four and his figures there are actually better than his overall stats.

Miller has had 15 innings in the top four, bringing him 370 runs at an average of 33.63 and a strike-rate of 154.81, both better than his overall average of 31.67 and a strike-rate of 140.82 from 80 innings.

But Miller says he is enjoying his tricky, floating finishing role in the team.

“In the IPL games here we’ve seen really good starts and it’s important to control the middle overs. It’s something we’ve done really well over the last few months and it gives a very good platform for the last five overs.

“If we lose a couple of wickets up front, then I can bat for more overs. But it’s about having an open mindset because there will be different scenarios all the time. You need to be more flexible.

“I’ve done the finishing role for the last couple of years and I feel comfortable there now, but I could come in in the ninth or 10th over to keep a left/right combination, or attack a spinner with a short boundary,” Miller said in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

The 32-year-old tore his hamstring in Ireland and missed the ODIs in Sri Lanka, but returned for the first T20 and scored 26 off 15 balls. He continued that good form against Afghanistan this week with 20 not out off 10 deliveries.