Sunday Times
TELFORD VICE, Cape Town
BIG cricket, baubled as it is with brashness, brouhaha and bombast, will need to get used to Temba Bavuma.
“I kept saying ‘Thank you, sir’ to Mr Hudson,” was how Bavuma described being told by selection convenor Andrew Hudson that he was in the squad to play three tests against West Indies.
What might the Lions batsman say should he be in the XI for the first test at Centurion, which starts on December 17?
“I haven’t thought of that feeling,” Bavuma said. “It might be bigger than it was when I was named in the squad. For now, I’m still trying to understand what’s actually happening.”
In 24 years, Bavuma has grown up to a degree men twice his age struggle to reach.
“In my younger days, I always played with guys older than me; guys who were more aggressive than me and bigger than me,’ he said. “There were a lot of elements I had to fight against. That could be a factor in why people say I come across as more mature for someone of my age.”
Bavuma is the size scrumhalves were when rugby was played on a human scale. Soon, he could be facing veritable lock forwards like Kieron Pollard. What then?
“I’ve been small all my life,” Bavuma said. “Just because I’m looking up at someone doesn’t mean he’s going to intimidate me.”
If anything, being regarded as a member of the next generation of test batsmen was a taller order.
“You put in a lot of work on a lot of aspects of your game, and when things don’t go your way you probably do ask yourself if it’s really going to happen - is your dream going to come true?
“One of the big things I’ve tried to work on is to get a stronger game in the mind. I have fiddled around with other little things, but the biggest development has been in my mind.
“So I’ve worked hard for this. I sat down at the end of the previous season and I wrote down my goals. One of them was to represent my country.”
Unlike Bavuma, Kagiso Rabada, who is also in a test squad for the first time, does not have to wonder how that feels having played two T20s on SA’s tour to Australia last month.
At 19 and with height and pace to burn, Rabada would be forgiven a touch of the brashness Bavuma eschews so impressively. If he plays, and succeeds, against West Indies, he will earn the right to flaunt a little more.
That said, if Rabada grabs sticks and headlines, his achievement will be bent into a shape that somehow fits SA’s planning for the World Cup. Could the timing of this test series get in the way of preparations for the tournament? Not according to former test spinner Paul Harris.
“There’s too much emphasis on ODIs,” Harris said. “I know there’s a World Cup coming but we’re the No. 1 test team and we haven’t played a test since August. It’s a disgrace.”
In a few years, Bavuma will talk that way.
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