South Africa batsman Temba Bavuma, who played match-winning innings of 98 runs against England in the first One Day International (ODI), has admitted that being judged by his skin colour instead of his cricketing ability has affected him.
Due to his patchy form off late, Bavuma has faced the heat of the critics who have hit him saying that his place in the squad is the result of the quota policy. According to the Cricket South Africa rules, the Proteas need to have six players of colour for every international outing including two black Africans.
However, on Tuesday, Bavuma dismissed all the negative talks around his as he shared a 173-run partnership with his skipper Quinton de Kock (107) to help South Africa chase down the winning total of 259 in the opener of three-match series at Newlands in Cape Town.
“It has been hard. It’s not so much the dropping part, all players get dropped, everyone goes through slumps of not scoring well. The awkwardness and uncomfortability from my side is when you are thrown into talks of transformation,” Bavuma was quoted as saying by IANS via ESPNcricinfo.
“Yes, I am black, that’s my skin. But I play cricket because I love it. I’d like to think the reason I am in the team is because of performances I have put forward in my franchise side, and also for the national team, whenever I have been able to. The discomfort was there, having to navigate myself around all those types of talks. Players get dropped, I am not the last guy to get dropped. That’s something we’ve come to accept,” he added.
The 29-year-old cricketer has further asserted that the policy should be looked at in a more liberal manner. He believes when a cricketer of colour performs poorly he is viewed through the prism of the quota policy but it is not talked about when the cricketer does well. He has called for a fair judgement of the ideology of transformation.
“When you do well, transformation is not spoken about but when you do badly, transformation is thrown at the top of the agenda. I have a serious problem with that. We’ve got to be able to take the good with the bad. If transformation is bad when black African players are not doing well, then when we are doing well, let’s also recognise transformation for what it’s done,” Bavuma said.