Bavuma’s laidback South Africa seem a different World Cup proposition

Back in 2011 The Spin was lucky enough to be in Bangladesh for the World Cup opening ceremony. It was a night of music and fireworks at the Bangabandhu, the captains paraded around the stadium on gilded rickshaws and the one carrying South Africa’s Graeme Smith amusingly broke down. Bryan Adams also belted out three of his hits in one of the Canadian’s more eclectic bookings.

Despite some personal envy the next morning at Patrick Kidd in the Times wondering whether Summer of ’69 was in fact six for nine, and thus a nod to Michael Clarke’s career-best Test bowling figures, it had been a pretty uplifting evening. The streets of Dhaka had been gridlocked and filled with a crackling electricity; a clear message of “hello world” being honked by a chorus of car horns.

There was no such fanfare in India this year, organisers instead opting for the low key by flying all 10 captains into Ahmedabad for a press conference the day before the first game (and no doubt keeping sponsor Aramco happy with the fuel consumption). And from that press conference, beyond niceties and news of Ben Stokes’s injury, emerged a photo of Temba Bavuma seemingly asleep in his chair.

In fairness, Bavuma had only just arrived after an exhausting late dash back home to South Africa to attend to an urgent family matter. He also insisted afterwards that the image delighting the wags on social media was a dodgy camera angle that gave the appearance of his eyes closing, rather than having actually drifted off to the land of nod.

But what if something bigger was at play; what if Bavuma’s slide down his chair said something about South Africa’s current outlook. Four years ago the Proteas failed to get out of gear, get out of the group, and, many diagnosed, get