"He’s Human Before a Cricketer": Temba Bavuma and Enoch Nkwe Speak Out on Kagiso Rabada’s Drug Ban

Temba Bavuma has been Kagiso Rabada's companion and close friend since they first played together in the Central Gauteng team back in 2014, and the Proteas Test captain says his biggest concern over the fast bowler who recently served a one-month ban for recreational drug use is that the person rather than the cricketer is okay. 

"KG is a close friend" – Bavuma speaks on loyalty and leadership

Rabada tested positive for a recreational but banned substance during the SA20 tournament in January and was suspended for April, returning home from the Indian Premier League, where he was playing for the log-leading Gujarat Titans. The substance has been reported to have been cocaine, but South Africa's bowling spearhead was this week included in the squad Bavuma will lead in the World Test Championship final against Australia at Lord's from June 11.

"KG is a close friend and I have been supporting him as much as has been needed," Bavuma told SportsBoom.co.za. 

"From a captaincy point of view, I am happy with the [disciplinary] process and my focus is on the human being - making sure he gets the support he needs."

"My biggest concern is for him personally, that he can deal with this and make sure he comes out of it as a better person. International sport is a tough place to be, you are constantly under the microscope and it's about how you can escape."

"KG has accepted he made a mistake, now it's about understanding what role he played in it, why did he find himself in that situation? Is there something underlying? If so, then we must deal with that. We saw how controversial he was before in that Test series against Australia in South Africa in 2018. But we also know how that series ended [South Africa won 3-1]."

"But our friendship comes first and I will be a captain later. We need to understand the human behind this, the biggest thing is the human, and we need to give him support. A lot of people who have their own skeletons in the closet have been pointing fingers. Yes, we are role-models, but we also have our own flaws. People shouldn't be so quick to celebrate when we make mistakes," Bavuma, five years older than Rabada, said.

Nkwe: No cover-up, WADA-led process respected

Tim Paine, who took over the captaincy of the Australian team in that 2018 series after Steve Smith was banned for his role in Sandpapergate, has slammed the way Rabada's positive drug test has been handled, with the paceman's one-month absence from the game in April being ascribed to "personal issues."

Asked whether Cricket South Africa should not have revealed the true reason for Rabada no longer being in India back in April, their director of cricket Enoch Nkwe told SportsBoom that the process was not in their hands but was governed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sports (SAIDS).

"It's important that we respected the process, which is not our responsibility. SAIDS drive that process, the same with WADA. So there's no frustration for us about when the news was revealed, it was always very clear to us what the timeline was," Nkwe told SportsBoom.co.za. 

"KG is in a good space, even though he feels that he let down the country. We gave him space to express himself, he came out and apologised and we forgave him, so there is no longer a cloud over him. At the end of the day, he is a human before he is a cricketer."

"My role is the bigger picture and there are always lessons we can take from this, as we work closely with the South African Cricketers' Association [SACA]. We need to look internally at what we can do better because there is more and more pressure on the players and their wellbeing remains our priority. That's something we don't want to drop the ball on," Nkwe concluded.