Sports
South Africa receive heroes’ welcome home
Everyone loves a winner, as was clear at Johannesburg’s Tambo International Airport where South Africa returned as World Test Champions on Wednesday morning.
The squad were received by the country’s sports minister, Gayton McKenzie, and swathes of people from across South African society. In attendance were groups of children from the KFC’s Mini Cricket programme – the largest grassroots development initiative in the country – students from some of the players’ former schools, such as Aiden Markram’s Pretoria Boys High School, and family members like Wiaan Mulder’s brother.
The players signed autographs, received flowers and hugs and strutted around in custom made “champions” t-shirts before making their way to Cricket South Africa’s offices in the north of the city where they were welcomed with a brass band and a red carpet. Almost 96 hours after their five-wicket triumph over Australia in the WTC final, the magnitude of what they have achieved is starting to sink in.
“It is quite overwhelming. We haven’t seen people like that at the airport before,” Temba Bavuma , South Africa’s captain said at a press conference afterwards. “As players, you don’t really realise what you’ve done but when you start to interact with people and see the emotion, it gives you a proper insight into what we’ve done. We are proud as a team but we are even more happy and proud that we’ve made our people proud. If you look at this team and the guys at the helm, we have done it the proper South African way. That’s unique to this group. We have embraced everything that it means to be South African.”
With a home grown coach in Shukri Conrad and a largely unheralded group of players, Bavuma’s words spoke to the way the South African team pulled together throughout the cycle and in the final. They had nine different Players of the Match in 2023-25 and 15 different players either scored a century or took a five-for in what has been hailed as a true team effort and a unified showing after years of underperformance. For Bavuma, it showed that there is always a way, not just for sportspeople but for everyone.
“What we’ve achieved speaks to all budding cricketers out there, and individuals within South Africa,” he said. “As a team, we’ve got a story. It hasn’t been a simple or easy one. We’ve come through a lot but we managed to get to where we are. So similarly for them (ordinary people) on their quest and journey, for what they want to achieve: as long as they keep having that passion and keep pushing they can also achieve what people think is unachievable.”
For 27 years, South Africa have been without an ICC trophy and in that time regularly slipped at the semi-final hurdle. The 1999 ODI World Cup, where South Africa tied the game but could not advance to the final because Australia finished higher on the Super Six points table, has long been a sore point but the 2015 and 2023 ODI World Cup semis and 2024 T20 World Cup final also stung. It’s because of those failures that the WTC win is magnified, as one of South Africa’s greatest sporting achievements. “This is huge for South African cricket,” Enoch Nkwe, Director of National Teams and High Performance said. “This is huge for South African cricket and the impact it will have for generations to come. We’ve taken a lot of punches but we’ve never bent our backs. We stayed strong.”
Nkwe, who was appointed in July 2022, put in place the coaching structure which included Conrad, who in turn appointed Bavuma as captain. Conrad will now also take over the white-ball sides until the end of the ODI World Cup in 2027. There is particular expectation around that tournament, not least because of the history documented above, but also because the event will be hosted in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Bavuma is also South Africa’s ODI captain and has already spoken of his hope for the event to come.
“We want to carry on with the momentum we’ve gained,” he said. “We are quietly optimistic as to what can happen in the white-ball space. We see no reason as to why we can’t emulate what we’ve done here. We are more optimistic than anything. We had a little conversation about it. Shukri’s mind is always ticking. He lets you know that there’s always some sort of work you need to do.”
That tournament is more than two years away, in which time there will be an entire WTC cycle and a T20 World Cup. Eyes will be on South Africa for all of them, especially as their next Tests include matches in Pakistan and India and home series against England and Australia in 2026. They believe they’ve laid the foundation to be successful in these contests but no-one can begrudge them celebrating the first world title for a little bit longer, as Bavuma suggested they would.
“For now, it’s for us to embrace what we’ve done, to take it all in, understand what led us to this point and live in that moment for a little bit longer,” Bavuma said. “Then, I think the beauty of international cricket is that there’s always something else waiting. Once we get over our emotions, it will be what is the next thing? There’s the Zimbabwe tour, and the start of the new Test cycle. We will be setting our eyes on what we want to achieve over there. There is always something we are working towards. It’s a legacy we want to put together as a team. It’s not done now, but for now it’s for us to enjoy what the moment has brought us.”
South Africa will have several fan engagements in the next few days before a two-Test series against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, which starts on June 28. The series is not part of the WTC.
While young opposition MPs continue parroting tired old slogans without once owning up to the sins of their political leaders, who led their parties straight into the wilderness, they would do well to take a leaf out of Charith Asalanka’s book.
Sri Lanka’s white-ball skipper fronted the media after a humbling T20 series defeat to Bangladesh and unlike the politicos dodging accountability, Asalanka fronted up, took it on the chin and didn’t sugarcoat the situation.
The 27-year-old admitted that his team had been outplayed, accepted that solutions were not just around the corner and stressed the importance of chipping away until answers emerged.
But even the best captains can only do so much. Cricket, like nation-building, is not a one-man show. It takes a team effort and right now, Sri Lanka’s is looking shaky, alarmingly so, with the T20 World Cup which they will co-host just months away.
At present, the side leans heavily on its openers, particularly the mercurial Kusal Mendis. For years, Mendis was the great hope who never quite delivered, like a Rolls Royce engine fitted into a tuk-tuk. But now, when he gets going, Sri Lanka more often than not end up on the right side of the result. Conversely, when he falls early, as he did in Dambulla and at the R. Premadasa Stadium, Sri Lanka’s innings collapses like a house of cards.
In those two games, Mendis was sent packing cheaply, and Sri Lanka’s totals, 94 and 132, were never going to trouble the scorers. Bangladesh cantered home both times, completing comprehensive wins.
Asalanka’s main concern is the lack of power-hitters in his ranks. While global heavyweights boast line-ups stacked with batters striking at 130 or more, Sri Lanka’s cupboard looks bare. Only a couple of players in the squad touch that strike-rate threshold.
Julian Wood, the much-vaunted Power-Hitting Coach is expected in Colombo soon for a week-long clinic. But while Wood might be able to polish a few rough diamonds, the question remains, why hasn’t Sri Lanka’s system produced natural big-hitters in the first place?
Bhanuka Rajapaksa is the country’s cleanest striker of a cricket ball, when he’s in the mood, he can hit a bowler onto the next postal code. But inconsistency, questionable fitness and fielding lapses have seen him fall out of favour. If he could just plug those holes, the selectors might hand him a longer rope.
Then there’s Avishka Fernando. In the nets, he’s a six-hitting machine with effortless power and sublime timing. But come match day, he shrinks.
It’s perhaps time to cast the net wider, to the ‘A’ team and emerging squads, for hitters who can clear the ropes and change the tempo. The clock is ticking.
Equally puzzling is the treatment of Sri Lanka’s pace trio: Dushmantha Chameera, Matheesha Pathirana, and Eshan Malinga. If they’re good enough to land IPL contracts, why are they warming the bench in national colours? Chameera, in particular, hit 140+ kmph regularly during the ODI series and had Bangladesh hopping about, yet didn’t feature in the T20s.
Sri Lanka’s showing in the last T20 World Cup was forgettable. They didn’t even clear the first round. The loss to Bangladesh in Dallas should’ve rung alarm bells loud enough to wake the dead. A total overhaul was expected. while handing Asalanka the reins was a step in the right direction, the core group from that campaign remains largely unchanged.
With the World Cup looming large, it’s time for a serious stocktake. The current unit looks like it’s caught in the nervous nineties, hesitant, unsure and lacking the firepower to finish an innings strong.Unless Sri Lanka pulls up its socks soon, the dream of lifting a global title on home soil may remain just that, a dream.
by Rex Clementine ✍️
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will provide 622 ‘Grays Cavallier’ white cricket balls for the Super Premier, Premier League and ‘C’ division league tournament organised by the Mercantile Cricket Association (MCA).
The ‘C’ division league cricket tournament is currently underway with the participation of 12 teams while 10 teams have entered for the MCA Super Premier and MCA Premier tournaments respectively. The Super Premier tournament will be played from September to November while the MCA Premier League will be played from July to September.
Sri Lanka Cricket has been extending its support to the Mercantile Cricket Association since 2017 by providing the full requirement of white cricket balls for their top three tournaments.
Secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket Bandula Dissanayake handed over the consignment of cricket balls for this years tournament to MCA’s president Mahesh de Alwis at a ceremony held at the Legends Wing of the MCA last Thursday.
Oleksandr Usyk further cemented his place as one of boxing’s greats by stopping Daniel Dubois in round five to become a two-time undisputed heavyweight champion.
The Ukrainian put on a masterclass in front of 90,000 fans at Wembley Stadium to dash Dubois’ dreams of being the first Briton to unify the division in the four-belt era.
Usyk, 38, put Dubois down twice in the fifth and the Londoner was unable to return to beat the count the second time round.
He also stopped Dubois in 2023 and extends his perfect record as a professional to 24 victories.
“I’m sorry Dubois, it’s sport. My people wanted this win,” Usyk told DAZN.
“Nothing is next. It’s enough. Next, I want to rest. My family, my wife, my children, I want to rest now. Two or three months, I want to just rest.”
Dubois – who beat Anthony Joshua to defend his IBF title in September – tastes defeat for the third time in 25 contests as a professional, with each of those losses coming inside the distance.
Usyk reclaimed the IBF title, which was stripped from him just weeks after unifying the division in 2023, and added it to his WBA (Super), WBO and WBC belts.
“I have to commend him on the performance, I gave everything I had. Take no credit away from that man, I’ll be back,” Dubois told DAZN.
“I was just fighting, trying to pick up round by round. It is what it is.”
[BBC]
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