Captain Bavuma’s big statement after ‘cleansweeping’ Team India, said – no need to prove now

Cape Town: Maintaining the right dressing room environment has been the ‘biggest challenge’ for Temba Bavuma in the early days of his captaincy. This is because South African cricket is going through many controversies one after the other off the field.

For South Africa cricket going through administrative crisis, the series win over India was very important. Before the start of the Indian team’s tour, some big names including head coach Mark Boucher have been accused of racism.

Speaking to the media after India’s elimination in ODIs, Bavuma said that it is still early days for him as a captain. He took charge in March last year.

‘The biggest thing for me is to focus on cricket’
Bavuma said on Saturday, ‘I don’t think it is easy (to captain the team). In this you need to manage many things. For me, keeping full focus on cricket was the biggest thing. There was a lot of talk about the team and the organization (board). So it was important to manage the conversations going on around the dressing room and make sure we hit the ground with 100 percent energy. That was the biggest challenge for me.

South African cricket has been embroiled in a controversy after team coach and former cricketer Boucher was accused of racism in a report ‘Social Justice and Nation Building’.

‘Century matters a lot’
Bavuma, who scored a century in the opening match of the series and led the team brilliantly, said, “It (century) means a lot as a player. It feels better to know that I have contributed to the team’s victory. Bavuma said, ‘You will always be judged on the basis of your record and defeating this Indian team by a huge margin proves a lot for my captaincy.’