Bavuma remains defiant over selection and won’t be stepping down as Proteas captain

I think we all skirt the ultimate problem with the situation. Selection is not currently based purely on merit. Under a pure merit system Bavuma would even qualify as a fourth choice, in fact he would seriously battle to even be in the reserves given his batting averages over the last 12 months never mind this contest! I think Fanie below misses the point! I agree we need to foster diversity BUT that starts at grass roots not at National team level! Sure you need to show that colour is not an inhibiting factor but putting in an incompetent person of colour has a more damaging effect to the process of diversity than not having him there embarrassing the other folk of colour! There were many alternatives to Bavuma - Aiden is an excellent captain who has a superior knowledge in field placing to Bavuma who really should have known that a policy to try and limit runs was never going to win the game - he needed to agressively go for wickets! Reeza has a better batting average under pressure and his possible 30 runs would have changed the game odds significantly. No it was a classical repeat of the disastrous forced selection back in a previous semi which led to the same outcome.

Eish the less said, the better

Sadly this just sets the bokke and the proteas apart - one captain has the teams interests first and the other has his own interests first. Step down and prove you are the best opening partner. Your selfishness costs us - Jacque and Rassie would never let an injured player play.

We went into this World Cup with no expectations. Our team is not that good. Our captain Bavuma was our leading batsman ito runs scored/avg over the previous 24 months by a long shot and a major reason we managed to scrape through and qualify. Majority of SA would’ve been happy to just make it out the group stage before the tournament. Now we want to destroy a good man, a recognised good captain because our avg team were not able to beat the eventual champions in the semi-final? SA top 6 collectively lost form as the tournament progressed. Aus top 6 came into form. That was the difference. Get off his back, Temba is not the scapegoat bigotry needs.

It is a fact that Themba was not up to par with the bat and he played two games not being 100% fit. This, I feel, displays poor judgement by the selectors. In my opinion he also made poor bowling choices - for example in the semis he brought on Jansen, going at 9 runs an over, to bowl the last over with Australia needing just 7 runs. Surely Gerald Coetzee was the obvious choice. I feel he should step away from the national team and build his confidence by playing provincial cricket, before making a come-back. I believe Kershav Maharaj is the man for the job. His record speaks for itself. We must salute our cricketers. They can be proud of getting to the semis only to be beaten by arguably the hungriest and most committed team in the world at the moment.

To be fair to the skipper, I read this article, maybe I missed it, but I don't see anywhere where he says he won't be stepping down. For me he was talking about the World Cup and why he did not step down in the middle of the campaign and specifically for the semi-final, past tense not the future.

There is no "I" in team and there lies the huge difference between captains when you compare him and Kolisi. Have you ever heard Kolisi saying I did this, I made this decision? It is always we achieved that as a collective we thought it was better to sit xyz out, and there lies the strength of our rugby team and coaching staff and the weakness of our cricket team and coaching staff.

He is an arrogant, egotist with a me first mentality. He is neither an opening bat or a captain. I hope both he and the coach watched the AUS/Ind game and saw both the captains field placings and bowling changes. WE need a captain who can think out of the box and be an inspiration not someone who sits in the shadows with his blanket.

The selection committee of Cricket SA has a unique selection policy: 5 batsmen + 5 boulers + 1 captain = 11 on the field. TembaBavuma will NEVER EVER be the Siya Kolisi of SA cricket. Themba’s batting, captaincy and social skills are not on the same level as Siya’s rugby, captaincy and social skills. Cricket SA must seriously consider investing in the captaincy of Kagiso Ramada.

Bavuma is clearly the symptom of the problem… the administration seems to be the only ones not see it because they are the problem