The current South African players are divided on whether the chokers tag applies to them or not but everyone is aware that the narrative will stick with them until they win a silverware, skipper Temba Bavuma said on Friday.
“I’ve used it a couple of times but you don’t really hear it coming about within the team,” Bavuma said ahead of their World Cup opener against Sri Lanka in Delhi. “I think there are guys who believe that it applies to this team, there are guys who don’t believe that it applies to this team.
“The belief amongst the team, that’s the most important bit I bring it up to just make sure that we’re not kind of skirting around the issue... it’s something that we’ll always have to deal with.”
Bavuma feels the team needs to accept the narrative.
“I think the biggest thing, at least for myself, is to accept that it is what it is. As a South African team, we know we’re going to have that chip on our back, or that narrative that we have to get over. And that’s always going to be there until we win a trophy,” he said.
In the first match of the day, Afghanistan will begin against Bangladesh in Dharamsala where the conditions are expected to help the pacers.
