Bavuma calls for Proteas accountability

Bavuma calls for Proteas accountability

Proteas white-ball captain Temba Bavuma says they are still in disbelief over their fate at the T20 World Cup in Australia but accountability ought to be taken.

South Africa were sent packing from the tournament by the Netherlands as they suffered an embarrassing 13-run defeat in their final group-stage clash at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday.

This was in spite of their promising form early on as they registered an emphatic 104-run victory over Bangladesh, before also beating eventual group winners and semi-finalists India.

Bavuma admits there should be answers and solutions for the various question marks hanging over the current crop of players, including himself.

"Ja, I mean, when a team performs like that and doesn't reach expectations, questions are going to be asked and people are going to come at the leaders," said Bavuma.

"I am the captain of the team so it's expected that people will ask questions about me, I'll take a deep look at my role and what I contributed to the team's performance. It's obviously been a challenging time for myself.

"It's been three days. I think I'm still trying to process it all. The emotions and feelings are not as raw as it was after the game, and I think the disappointment and disbelief are still there.

"I think it's going to take me a couple of days, to be honest with you. If I look at it up until that Netherlands game, I thought we played very good cricket as a unit but, for us then to exit like that in that crucial game, begs a lot to differ.

"I think questions within the group will be asked, and answers and solutions should be put forward."

However, the 32-year-old maintained he will not take any hasty decisions regarding his future both as the captain and his availability for the shorter format of the game.

"To be honest, I haven't thought that far about the upcoming World Cup [in India next year]. So, I don't want to sit here and give you an answer that could change in a month's time or after three months," he added.

"I think now there's a lot on my mind, obviously, with what's happened with the World Cup and just trying to process all of that.

"I think when things start to get clearer once we've had all the discussions, like Enoch [Nkwe] has said, the post-mortems and all of that, I guess things will become a lot clearer."

By Chad Klate