'We are the best sporting nation in the world'

Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie lauded the Proteas cricket team for returning home with the ICC mace on Wednesday after winning the World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord’s last week.

With the South Africans beating Australia by five wickets to win the Test title, they broke the team’s 27-year trophy drought.

For this feat, McKenzie rightfully described the Proteas as the best cricket team in the world.

Given the success of the Springboks, Bafana Bafana’s 20-match unbeaten streak and the athletics success from the likes of Akani Simbine and Bayanda Walaza, McKenzie argued that South Africa is unrivalled in the global sporting arena.

“We are the best sporting nation in the world,” said McKenzie on Wednesday.

“We have the strongest woman in the world, we have the strongest man in the world, we have the fastest runners in the world. We have the best soccer players now in the world.”

With Temba Bavuma having led his side to glory at Lord’s, McKenzie recognised the journey that the 35-year-old has been on in his career.

Bavuma’s career has been filled with criticism, with most of it unfair and lacking any basis.

From the start of his Proteas stint, Bavuma was labelled as the first black African Test batter for South Africa – a tag that seemed to confine the right-handed batter and, to an extent, proved heavy to bear.

“For now, it’s important for us to at least acknowledge and embrace what we’ve done,” the right-handed batter said on Wednesday.

“To take it all in, to understand as players the role that we played to get us to this point, and really just live in that moment for a little bit longer.”

McKenzie shone the light on Bavuma, confidently referring to him as the best captain the Proteas have ever had.

“When you win, people forget what he said about you when you were not winning. There was a lot of unfair criticism against our captain. He was criticised by a person who doesn’t even know the game of cricket,” said McKenzie.

“People used to write stuff, but what I like, they started deleting those tweets so fast, faster than our fastest bowler. I want to say to you, Temba, this country is truly rich because you are a citizen of this country. You are a fantastic captain.

“I want to apologise on behalf of every dumb critic in South Africa who used to go for Temba, on behalf of everyone who spoke nonsense about you.

“We have always believed in you. There’s never been such a great cricket captain. This is the greatest cricket captain South Africa has ever had.”

Proteas coach Shukri Conrad added: “There’s so much else sitting in this change-room that scares me. It excites me at the same time, as to where we can go with this group. I’m really looking forward to the next couple of years.”

Following the WTC triumph at Lord’s, the team sang a song to Bavuma, which made the rounds across the world and certainly reached McKenzie as well.

The song was sung by young kids from all walks of Mzansi at the OR Tambo International Airport on Wednesday, something that McKenzie interpreted as the identity of the country.

“I saw a four-year-old white boy today singing that song. And I looked at that and I realised that this is who we are as South Africans,” said McKenzie.  

“That boy was singing out of his chest. And that’s what the media should concentrate on, not people talking about you.”