Temba Bavuma hailed the greatest cricket captain in SA history
The Proteas cricket team, led by captain Temba Bavuma, received a resounding welcome when they arrived at the OR Tambo International Airport on Wednesday with the ICC mace following their victory over Australia during the World Test Championship final at Lord's, England at the weekend.
Image: Jairus Mmutle/GCIS
SPORTS, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie sang praises for Proteas captain Temba Bavuma, confidently referring to him as the best captain the Proteas have ever had.
With Bavuma having led his side to the first World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord's last week and returning home with the ICC mace on Wednesday, McKenzie recognised the journey that the 35-year-old has been on in his career.
Bavuma's career has been filled with criticism, with most of it unfair and lacking any basis.
From the start of his Proteas stint, Bavuma was labelled as the first black African Test batter for South Africa – a tag that seemed to confine the right-handed batter and, to an extent, proved heavy to bear.
'For now, it's important for us to at least acknowledge and embrace what we've done,' said Bavuma.
'To take it all in, to understand as players the role that we played to get us to this point, and really just live in that moment for a little bit longer.'
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McKenzie shone the light on Bavuma, saying: 'When you win, people forget what he said about you when you were not winning. There was a lot of unfair criticism against our captain. He was criticised by a person that doesn't even know the game of cricket,' said McKenzie.
'People used to write stuff, but what I like, they started deleting those tweets so fast, faster than our fastest bowler. I want to say to you, Temba, this country is truly rich because you are a citizen of this country. You are a fantastic captain.
'I want to apologise on behalf of every dumb critic in South Africa who used to go for Temba, on behalf of everyone who spoke nonsense about you.
'We have always believed in you. There's never been such a great cricket captain. This is the greatest cricket captain South Africa has ever had.'
Following the WTC triumph at Lord's, the team sang a song to Bavuma, which made the rounds across the world and certainly reached McKenzie as well.
The song was sung by children from all walks of Mzansi at the OR Tambo International Airport on Wednesday, something that McKenzie interpreted as the identity of the country.
'I saw a four-year-old white boy today singing that song. And I looked at that and I realised that this is who we are as South Africans,' said McKenzie.
'That boy was singing out of his chest. And that's what the media should concentrate on, not people talking about you.'
Proteas coach Shukri Conrad added: 'There's so much else sitting in this change-room that scares me. It excites me at the same time, as to where we can go with this group. I'm really looking forward to the next couple of years.'
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