When Temba Bavuma registered a terrific century against India on Wednesday in Paarl – which was only his second ODI ton after making the first one on his debut in 2016 – there must have been a huge amount of relief, along with great elation, for head coach Mark Boucher and CSA Director, Graeme Smith.
For it was their decision last year to put a man at the helm in white-ball cricket who had till then only played six ODIs and eight T20s, and had one Test century – still does – in 44 Tests.
Although, Temba Bavuma had led really well at the T20 World Cup – amid the controversy surrounding Quinton de Kock – this century against a potent Indian bowling attack was a sense of vindication of Boucher and Smith’s call. There was joy there, surely.
But there would have been greater joy at Bavuma’s home place – Langa, the place which gets along for giving South Africa the disgraced Thami Tsolekile, who played 3 Tests in 2004, before he was handed a 12-year ban by CSA in August 2016 for “contriving to fix” in the 2015 Ram Slam.
Standing no taller than 5 ft 4, Temba Bavuma is South Africa’s first black African Test batsman, first black African centurion, and first black African captain.
“I understand the deeply rooted significance of it all,” he had said last year upon his appointment as the skipper in white-ball cricket.
There is no doubt that he understands and embraces every bit of the struggle he has had coming from Langa, a township outside Cape Town, to be a torchbearer in a country that has a deep racial history.
Spanning only as big as 3 square kilometres, Langa, formally opened in 1929, is the oldest township in Cape Town, accommodates over 50,000 people of which more than 98 percent are black Africans.
Temba Bavuma grew up on Rubusana Avenue, a short walk from Langa Cricket Club, before he moved to Johannesburg, where he played for Soweto Cricket Club.
Before Temba Bavuma, another big name came from Langa – Malusi Siboto, who featured in 115 first-class games but couldn’t get a crack at the highest level.
Langa still remains a difficult place to live, to go by. Crime rate is unsurprisingly high, illegal substance consumption and abuse is a common scene, women safety is not a topic of discussion. Regular deaths aren’t a concerning factor. You’d need a bloody cold heart to even imagine the scenario there a decade ago.
Fortunately for Temba Bavuma, he managed to find his way out of that place for his father, a journalist by profession, got employment in Jo’burg. He got his first shot at the age of 18 when he made his first-class debut for Gauteng, and three seasons later was playing for the Lions.
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He slowly climbed the steps. Steps that led him to become a hero, an inspiration. The first Black African to lead South Africa full-time in any format.
Similar slow, steady, careful steps were taken by Bavuma in Paarl when he came to bat at 19/1 and saw the scorecard slip to 68/3. He got ideal support in Rassie van der Dussen, who also scored his second ODI ton, as both took the side to a mammoth total of 296 on a slow, turning, and dry surface.
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