Proteas reaching WTC final no ‘easy ride’: Bavuma answers Vaughan, Lehmann

03 January 2025 - 06:45 By Stuart Hess in Cape Town
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Temba Bavuma and Shukri Conrad have hit back at claims that SA had an easy path to the World Test Championship final.
Temba Bavuma and Shukri Conrad have hit back at claims that SA had an easy path to the World Test Championship final.
Image: Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images

Temba Bavuma, like Proteas head coach Shukri Conrad, is not buying the opinions of former players from Australia and England who feel South Africa is undeserving of its place in the World Test Championship final, because apparently the standard of the opposition was poor. 

“I definitely don’t believe it was an easy ride,” said the South African captain ahead of the second Test against Pakistan, which starts at Newlands on Friday.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan and former Australian international Darren Lehmann, who also coached the country’s national team, both criticised South Africa's qualification for the WTC final, which will be played at Lord’s in June.

“If you look at South Africa, they’ve got to the final by beating pretty much nobody,” Vaughan said in an interview with Fox Cricket in Australia. Meanwhile, Lehmann, responding to a tweet pointing out the flaws with the WTC, wrote: “The only problem is (SA) wouldn’t beat any of the top 3.”

He later clarified that he included New Zealand in his top three, but also forgot that South Africa did face India in the current WTC cycle, and won the first of two Tests against them.

The problem with the WTC, as it is currently set up, is that the majority of teams play between 12 and 14 Tests in the two-year cycle, while England, Australia and India — colloquially referred to as the “Big 3" — play 19 to 22, for the most part against each other. 

Earning points on the WTC log is based on a percentage of wins, which in the case of South Africa saw them win seven out of the 11 matches they have played thus far in the cycle, giving them a win percentage of 66.67. England have played 22 Tests in the same period, and have won 11 for a 50% win ratio.

“We’d love to play a lot more games, like the other three countries who are,” said Bavuma. “Hopefully with the way we have performed, more matches will come our way. We just do what we can as a team, we try to play good cricket. As players, it’s not for us to get involved with the sentiments being expressed by past players.”

Cricket SA opted for the minimum number of Tests for a series — two — for the current cycle ostensibly because outside last season’s series with India, they weren’t facing any of the “Big 3" and therefore stood to make a substantial financial loss. 

In addition they virtually sacrificed a series in New Zealand, to protect the sports domestic moneymaker, the SA20 last February. It’s far from an ideal situation, but the ICC funding model grants India almost 40% of revenue from TV deals, leaving nations like South Africa to create competitions like the SA20, to sustain the sport. 

Test cricket suffers as a result and even in the case of the ICC, attempts to maintain the format’s relevance through tournaments like the WTC, it creates a flawed competition.

Despite that, saying South Africa beat “nobody,” is insulting to teams like Sri Lanka, Pakistan and West Indies. As Conrad pointed out, the West Indies beat Australia in the second of a two-match series last year, Sri Lanka won a Test in England and Pakistan recovered from 0-1 down to defeat England 2-1 in October. He added that wouldn’t be apologising for the route South Africa has taken to get to the final.

South Africa have beaten all three of those teams and head into the New Year’s Test on a six-match winning streak. 

“I don’t think it's an easy feat and those are games we have won at home and away. We take a lot of pride in what we’ve achieved, but it’s not for us to be involved in all that talk,” said Bavuma


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