How Temba Bavuma found a role model in a 14-year-old

South Africa's World Test Championship-winning captain Temba Bavuma is defining his legacy not only with his runs and cricketing intelligence, but also by the way he is extending help to others, on and off the field.

He hopes to be remembered as a captain who helped others express their individuality, a recent instance of which came when he supported batter Wiaan Mulder in his decision to not break Brian Lara's Test score record.

Off the field, Bavuma is trying to make sure that young South Africans in vulnerable positions have a local cricketing hero they can relate to - which he himself took some time to find in his own youth.

One of the key ways he's giving back is through non-profit organisation DKMS Africa - a donor recruitment centre and registry - to raise awareness about the importance of registering as a stem cell donor, which helps save the lives of blood-cancer and blood-disorder patients.

Bavuma told ESPN about his motivation to join DKMS as an ambassador: "My late grandma passed away via leukemia and that was something that was never spoken about in the household. I guess for them to see me getting behind a cause like this allowed them to somewhat heal - at least to speak about it, but also heal from what was traumatic for them."

Apart from his grandmother, Bavuma was inspired by the story of an aplastic anemia patient - a 14-year-old fan named Iminathi. DKMS Africa told Bavuma Iminathi's story, and he hosted the boy at the Wanderers alongside Lions, Bavuma's domestic team.

Bavuma said: "I think in life we all need heroes. We all need people to look up to. I guess we all grow up with our own dreams and aspirations and ambitions and those easily come to life - or at least become reachable - when you see people like you who are doing it.

"For an individual like Iminathi - [he] also was a source of inspiration that I could draw from. I'm quite privileged in a lot of ways within my life. The pressures and struggles that I go through are nothing compared to what Iminathi does and he is still able to do it with a smile on his face."

DKMS Africa was established in 2021, following the amalgamation of international organisation DKMS and the South African Sunflower Fund. Although they have made some progress reaching South Africans of all ethnicities, they still face challenges building diversity among their donor base.

South Africans are classified by the government according to four main racial groups: black, coloured, Asian/Indian and white. Among DKMS Africa's 125,000 registered donors, 45% are white, 38% black, 9% coloured and 8% Asian. White South Africans make up 7.3% of the country's total population, as per the 2022 national census, and are therefore disproportionately represented among donors. As a result, it may be easier for white South Africans in need of a stem cell donor to find a match than for their black counterparts, who make up 81.4% of the total population.

Apart from disparities in access to information, Bavuma attributes the relative shortage of black stem cell donors to the importance of blood in some African cultures, and the fact that most stem cell donations are collected from the bloodstream.

"I think there's a lot of stigmas that exist among people of my [ethnicity] when it comes to blood and giving blood. I think that can only be challenged by educating people, and also people seeing someone similar to them going out and supporting these kinds of causes," said Bavuma.

In the Xhosa culture he grew up in, blood is viewed as the essence of life and a conduit for connection with the ancestors. "Black culture is a bit interesting if you haven't grown up with it," Bavuma said, "especially if you look at it from a Western type of lens. Blood is quite sacred within our culture. The sacrifice of blood, the use of blood and the exchange of blood - those things have a certain significance.

"To challenge that, you need the right education. You need the right type of people as well, to be able to speak the language that those types of people understand."

In his youth Bavuma had a taste of both the hardship that many South Africans face and the privilege reserved for a few, of whom a disproportionate number are white. Born and raised in Langa Township in Cape Town, Bavuma quickly gained attention for his prodigious cricketing talent.

This afforded him scholarships at two of South Africa's most prestigious schools - first the South African College School in Cape Town during his junior schooling, and then later St David's Marist Inanda in Johannesburg after his family relocated during his high school career.

When there has been division in the South Africa side, Bavuma has been able to draw upon his experience of both worlds to ensure unity prevailed. One notable example was in 2021, when Quinton de Kock withdrew from a T20 World Cup game against West Indies over a hasty directive from Cricket South Africa to the players five hours before the game to take a knee against racial discrimination.

De Kock later apologised and credited Bavuma for being a "flipping amazing leader" for maintaining unity among those who played that match in de Kock's absence without ostracising him for following his convictions.

That was a period Bavuma acknowledged at the time as being one of his hardest as a leader. However, more recently, he has witnessed his conviction that no player under his watch should be afraid to make a bold decision - as exemplified by Mulder, under much happier circumstances.

Mulder - serving as stand-in captain in a Test against Zimbabwe in July for the then-injured Bavuma - declared despite being on 367 not out himself, only 33 runs shy of Brian Lara's world record. The decision drew praise in some quarters and criticism in others.

Regardless of whether it was the right call, the sheer bravery of the decision was a sign in itself that Bavuma's values are likely to be upheld in the South Africa set-up beyond the end of his captaincy.

"People always ask: 'What is it about this team?' We're not a team of superstars, but there are always moments or snippets that give you a real shot or preview into what the team is about," Bavuma said.

"That moment there - Wiaan Mulder - a young guy making his mark in international cricket, in his first game as a stand-in captain, has an opportunity to break the world record and is able to make a decision like that. That, for me, shows what the team is about," Bavuma said.

"I was actually there in Zimbabwe when Wiaan and the coach [Shukri Conrad] made that decision. I think he would have earned a lot of respect not just from us as players but from the cricketing world.

"It's easy to say that you're going to put the team first and all of that, but the important thing is: when it's in front of you, what do you exactly do?"

Whether it relates to his work building a winning cricket culture within the South Africa side or a culture of awareness regarding people with blood disorders through his work with DKMS Africa, Bavuma is looking to ensure that actions do the talking.