How do You See Temba Bavuma?

                                                                   How do You See Temba Bavuma?

Oh, you do not see Temba Bavuma at all? There is a reason for my seeing him the way I do.

I see him as 4 cm taller than I was at my tallest (I have been through an accident in which my spinal discs got compressed; besides, just about everyone loses height as they get to 60 years in age and go beyond; I am 71 now).

But some see him as yet another token black on the South African cricket team. Bavuma’sbatting average is nothing to write home about. In the same breath I would mention he captained his nation’s cricket team to win the ICC World Test Championship. South Africa’s cricket team now onwards cannot be called “Chokers”. That has to count for something He had the nous. That too counts. A captain is a captain and a winning captain is perched a step above. That is really how I see Temba Bavuma.

Raghuram Ekambaram

P. S. The above was written before South African victory over India in the match on November 16, 2025, two days ago. I posted it at 2:20 PM. I am now reposting the material with hardly any change as I had inadvertently deleted that blog post. I retyped (as distinct from rewrote) the post from material I had in .pdf with hardly any changes, like the name of the Championship South Africa won beating Australia, and the opening two sentences.

Raghuram Ekambaram

P. S. 2 I am giving below an article profiling Bavuma two days after South Africa’s victory in The Hindu of 2025-11-18, that is two days later. Don’t tell me that I am patting myself on my back, though that is precisely what I am doing. The newspaper piece has some details that would have been available to him to which neither had I access nor was I interested in them. 

 

Raghuram Ekambaram