LEADING LIGHT

Du Plessis keen on role as South Africa's non-captaining captain

by Telford Vice • Last updated on Mon, May 4, 2020, 07:26 PM

Faf du Plessis gave up South Africa captaincy in February. © AFP

Hands down the best choice to captain South Africa's Test team is unavailable for the job. But he is determined to pave the pitfalls on the road he has walked for the benefit of those who will follow in his footsteps. In most cricket cultures, that would be welcomed. In South Africa's, which too often is fuelled by a feral fickleness, it's revolutionary.

Faf du Plessis is that non-captaining captain, and his detractors will be irked to hear there's no getting rid of him completely just yet. They campaigned, often unfairly, for him to be sacked long before the end of a 2019-20 season in which South Africa won only one of the seven matches they played under him. That followed five losses in eight completed games at the 2019 World Cup.

Du Plessis went on his own terms, resigning the leadership in all formats in February once figures of the stature of Mark Boucher and Graeme Smith had been installed as coach and director of cricket. Quinton de Kock has replaced Du Plessis as the white-ball captain, but who might lead South Africa the next time they play Tests is unclear.

Du Plessis captained the side 112 times in all formats and has an overall winning percentage of 61.61. That's higher than Shaun Pollock, Graeme Smith, AB de Villiers or Hashim Amla, South Africa's other all-format leaders. Only Pollock has a more successful record in Tests than Du Plessis and only Johan Botha and Smith top him in T20Is. In ODIs, Du Plessis is king of the hill.

But you're only as good as your last run-in with the haters, who would sooner have Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, De Kock or Dean Elgar - anyone but Du Plessis, it seems - as Test captain. Nevermind that those five players have, between them, 23 games worth of experience at the helm at international level, just two of them in Tests.

"I love captaincy; it's a part of who I am," Du Plessis said on Monday in an audio file released by Cricket South Africa (CSA). "I've captained in all formats since the age of 13. I've always looked at myself as a leader before a player. I enjoy that more than anything else, so I will always miss it."

Sniff. So much for the sadness...

"The time is right for me to move on to a position of growing other leaders, something I feel is lacking in our system. I want to make sure I can help guys have someone there who guides them and is there, if they want their help, just to talk to in the team. Every time someone else takes they have to find their own way. My purpose for the next year is to get stuck in and grow guys and share my experience that I've gained."

Getting Du Plessis to contemplate the glass half-empty isn't easy. As he said after South Africa lost their first two games at the World Cup: "It's important that we don't go take a left turn into negative town." But even the strongest characters buckle under the level of increasingly irrational hostility that was slung at him last summer: "The pressure really started pointing towards me. A lot of energy was pushed towards me. I felt that I had been fighting the good fight for the Proteas. I gave it my absolute everything.

"After the Test series [against England, which ended in January] I went away and reflected, and I thought that was the right time for it. The biggest reason was that I felt the new coaching staff could start the journey with someone new. I have a lot of value to add to that, but now's the time to fast-track that process. That's why I took the decision to step away. I still see myself adding huge value. Not at any stage did I decide I wanted to go and sign deals overseas. I'm still hugely motivated to play for the Proteas in all three formats."

South Africa's febrile race politics is alive and kicking in cricket. Twenty-six years after Nelson Mandela swept to power in the country's first democratic elections, blacks in all walks of life still don't get the recognition and respect other race groups afford each other. Consequently, frustration builds and boils over, often in an unhelpfully ugly fashion. Like it did at Du Plessis' assertion during the Test series against England that "we don't see colour" when he was asked what message Bavuma's axing sent to black South Africans. Similar outrage followed the demotion of Enoch Nkwe from interim team director, which he was for the tour to India in September and October, to assistant coach after Boucher's appointment as fulltime head coach in December. Du Plessis' comment on the Bavuma issue was a surprising misstep for someone so carefully articulate. He wasn't about to repeat the error on Monday.

"We needed to get some experience into our coaching staff, which was something that required a lot of my energy," Du Plessis said. "Enoch did a great job in India, but because we had for the first time in a long time lacked experience in players we needed to fill that gap with coaches. You can just plug them into the position and try and fast-track the inexperienced players. We needed experience and we got it. To get [batting consultant Jacques] Kallis and 'Bouch' was really good, and to get Graeme and Jacques Faul [as CSA's acting chief executive] in were two key decisions. We're in a position now where I think we will start producing again because our structures are looking sound. There are some good heads to help the players grow their game."

That doesn't happen nearly often enough in a system where top players become disenchanted with the game's damagingly inept administration and a struggling national economy long before they retire. Care for South African cricket's future is low among priorities, and even those who do want to give back can come across as selfish and egotistical.

"We need to give this attention," Du Plessis said. "It's not there in South African cricket and it's important that we see the value of it. It's part of our culture that we don't ask for help too often. We want to act like we've got it all figured out. This is a real opportunity for us to look at that and think how we can grow the group. Not a lot of our guys have captained a lot of games of cricket. That's OK. It's a great opportunity for a few guys to come together and start building themselves and each other to create a leadership group that will drive the culture for the next three or four years."

Du Plessis plans to be around to make that happen. But for now he and his wife, Imari, are awaiting the birth of their second daughter. And putting their celebrity to good use during South Africa's lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic. "I had a huge urgency to get involved," Du Plessis said. "It started with lifting and glorifying people who were doing amazing things out in the communities serving, helping and feeding other people. Through that, it grew within myself and Imari's heart to help on a personal level. We felt we needed to get stuck in and do more."

They were part of a bid to secure the USD910 needed to feed 174 families in Lavender Hill, an impoverished area in Cape Town, for a month. "We raised that money in a day-and-a-half, and we had [USD1,340] extra." The surplus will feed 1,500 children. "It breaks my heart to see little kids standing in line across fields waiting for food."

Many cricketers are interested only in what is best for them. Others recognise the importance of building teams they might not be part of for much longer. A rare few look past all that to see what really matters.

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their second daughter. And putting their celebrity to good use during South Africa's lockdown b 4 hdsfh

Du Plessis keen on role as South Africa's non-captaining captain

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