Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma believes their qualification for the World Test Championship (WTC) final was completely merited, after a number of former players took exception to the ‘favourable’ schedule of South Africa.
South Africa beat Pakistan in the Boxing Day Test in Centurion to complete six wins in a row in the format, and book their place in the WTC final with a game to spare.
Even as the Proteas made three changes to their side to take on Pakistan in the second and final Test at Newlands starting on Friday, the topic of their WTC final qualification took centre stage.
Chiefs among the critics of SA’s WTC final qualification was former England captain Michael Vaughan who said the Proteas beat 'pretty much nobody'.
Bavuma, however, was diplomatic in his response while hinting that the ‘big three’ (India, England, Australia) effectively control the scheduling of world cricket.
“The other comments, we don't come up with the scheduling. We'd love to play a lot more games like the other three countries around the world who are,” said Bavuma.
“Hopefully with the way that we've performed, there will be more matches that come our way. We just do what we can as a team. We try to play good cricket. I think as us as players, it’s not for us to really get involved in those sentiments, negative sentiments, being shared by past players.”
In the current cycle, at the beginning of 2024, South Africa were forced to take a second string squad to take on hosts New Zealand in a two-Test series. The Proteas were no match for their opponents as they lost the series 2-0.
The reason, however, they were forced to leave their marquee players at home was because of the financial problems of Cricket South Africa (CSA).
It meant CSA had to have their top players available for their local SA20 competition. The financial implications of not having those players available for the event would have been catastrophic for the game in South Africa.
“I definitely don't believe it was an easy ride to get to this point. When we played against New Zealand, we also struggled as a team,” said Bavuma.
“And from then on, we pretty much won all of our games from that point. So I don't think that's an easy feat, by any stretch of the imagination. And those are games we've won at home, but also away too.”