Temba Bavuma...The Enigma?

No. Just the man he is.

‘Enigmatic’ can sound trite. Something, or somebody, requires a bit too much work to unravel or understand. Enigmatic. Or they prefer not to reveal too much of themselves. When skills are brilliant but inconsistent, ‘mercurial’ is used.

Temba Bavuma is more easily pigeon-holed in the first category, especially now that his skills are more consistent than most. He is enigmatic because he is private. Back in 2021 we did a long interview after he was appointed ODI captain and, obviously, I asked him how he felt about being the owner of a single century after seven years of Test cricket, with an average of 32.

“As a batsman you understand that you will be judged statistically, there’s no other way. There is no metric for the quality or importance of your runs, just how many. I’d like to think I’ve earned the respect of my team mates and that true fans will see that most of my big performances have come when the team has been in trouble,” Bavuma said.

“An average of 32 isn’t anything to shout about, that’s true, but when I was first picked we were ranked number seven in the world and a couple of years later we were number two. It would be nice to average 45, and I’ll do everything I can to get there, but I will always sacrifice personal gain for the sake of the team,” Bavuma says. “If the team is winning and I’m averaging 32 then I’ll sleep fine at night. It is what it is.”

Bavuma, if you didn’t know, has averaged 50 since 2021 while the rest of the Proteas top seven batsmen have collectively averaged 29.3. His career average is a respectable 38.42 and he has four centuries. But it’s still many of the ‘other’ innings which he should be remembered more. The signs were always there.

In Hobart in 2016 Australia were bowled out for just 85 under leaden skies on a fantastically green pitch but fought back to reduce the tourists to 76-4 before Bavuma (76) added 144 with Quinton de Kock to reach a match-winning total of 326 to clinch a third straight series win down under.

In Wellington a year later South Africa were 94-6 in reply to New Zealand’s 268 when Bavuma (89) and de Kock added 160 to help the Proteas become the only visitors to win in New Zealand for five years.

There have been more match-winning non-centuries since then, of course, with his injured 66 in the World Test Championship final being the most prominent – very closely followed by the unbeaten 55 to give his team the chance they needed for the famous 30-run win at Eden Gardens. And let’s not forget the 113 and 106 against Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Durban and Cape Town which went a very long way to the Proteas reaching that final.

It’s too easy and convenient to highlight Bavuma’s mental fortitude, as though it comes naturally or even easily. It doesn’t. He is a sensitive person who takes criticism personally and painfully, and there has been a lot of it over the years.

It was folly to appoint him T20 captain. When his World Cup in Australia went tits up and his offer/suggestion that he be left out of the starting XI was rejected, it was yet another reminder that his employers (and their employers) held the significance of South Africa’s first black captain in far higher regard than his, of the team’s, fortunes.

He pulled out of South Africa’s fourth game at the 2023 World Cup at the last minute feeling “unwell with a fever”. Reeza Hendricks had 35 minutes notice that he was playing. South Africa had smashed Sri Lanka and Australia in their opening two games and then lost by 38-runs to the Netherlands in their third. Bavuma made 16 from 31 balls.

It may be nothing more than conspiracy-theory, but team mates suspected (some believed) that Bavuma’s fever may have been a protest. He really is the ultimate team man. If he wasn’t in form, he wasn’t going to play. Hendricks made 85 and Heinrich Klaasen smashed an eye-watering 109 from 67 balls with the Proteas savaging England for a total of 399. He was pictured, often, in the change room with a cold towel around his neck, and a spark in his eye.

He was unavailable for national selection just over a year ago for ‘personal reasons’. Treadmill. What could it be? Another injury, a bereavement? Worse? Turns out he was becoming a Dad. Paternity leave is the now the most common reason for professional cricketers to step off the treadmill. But he preferred that it not be made public. Enigmatic? Whatever.

Temba Bavuma should be remembered as one of South Africa’s greatest captains. Victory in Guwahati next week will surely ensure that. He has never craved attention or adulation, just respect. It’s a decent time to accord it, for those who may not have already.