WTC: How South Africa ended a long curse since their sporting comeback

An eager Graeme Smith, fitted with the TV crew’s earpiece, was waiting outside the boundary line as South Africa inched towards their victory target at the World Test Championship (WTC) final against mighty Australia. Shaun Pollock, visibly tense, got up from his seat at the commentary box as the last over began while AB de Villiers clutched on to his young son in the stands.

One is not aware where the likes of Allan Donald, Kepler Wessels or Makhaya Ntini were watching the game from – but the greats of the game from the rainbow nation can finally sleep well on Saturday. It look them 34 years of hurt ever since their return to mainstream sport in 1991 after the apartheid era to win a first ICC world crown, leaving aside the Champions Trophy in between in 1998.    

 It’s been a long journey from the heartbreak of 1992 World Cup semi-final, where they were left to score 21 off one last ball – thanks to the vagaries of the rain rule. Aiden Markram, the reticent South African whose epic innings of 136 at the so called home of cricket, also came ever so close of lifting a World Cup when in the World T20 final in Barbados last year where they fell short by a mere nine runs to India.   

When the proverbial chokers’ tag was finally lifted at the stroke of lunch on the fourth day, Temba Bavuma and his men could not have been more pleased in exposing that the Australians were not unbeatable after all. The WTC final match-up, ever since the two finalists were confirmed earlier this year, was being touted as a mis-match with many a pundit calling it a ‘farce’ as South Africa had registered the necessary points against so called weaker teams.

 Speaking to the broadcasters, Temba – a word that means ‘hope’ or ‘trust’ in Nguni language – struck the right note when he hoped that such a huge win would unite the country as one against all forms of racial divide. ‘’I know we are a divided country but it's moments like these that unite us. There were doubters about the route we took,’’ said the captain, who enjoys an unbeaten record as captain in 10 Tests and set the tone for an improbable chase with a defiant 66 off 134 balls and a 147-run stand with Markram.

Now 35 and as the first fulltime black captain of the racially torn country, pocket-sized Bavuma’s journey to respectability had not been easy. The tag of a captain on racial quota continues to dog him in an ecosystem which has seen some of their best talents desert international cricket at a young age for the lure of franchise cricket – be it a Quinton de Kock or Heinrich Klaasen in recent times.

 Bavuma, whose waiting game may lack the appeal to attract global T20 franchises, had two architects of this succeeded who command equal hype in the white ball format. If Markram had looked in the zone till one lapse of concentration ended his innings when the Proteas were all but home, speedster Kagiso Rabada singlehandedly broke Australia’s back in both innings to finish with match figures of 10 wickets for 110 runs and keep them in the game.

 ‘’KG managed to leave the controversies behind him (he came out after serving a month long ban for using a recreational drug) while Aiden showed unbelievable character in the second innings,’’ said Bavuma. Speaking about the captain himself, he may not be quite the athletic Siya Kolisi, the charismatic black Rugby Union captain of the Springboks who lifted back-to-back World Cup in 2019 and 2023 – but then Bavuma has certainly managed to carve a little niche for himself after Saturday.

 The next bunch of black kids assembling on the cobbled streets of Langa, outside Cape Town, to play cricket now have an idol in him to look upto.