South Africa's du Plessis criticises cricket's 'Big Three' move

South African cricket captain Faf du Plessis believes cricket needs more, not fewer, elite nations.

Speaking after South Africa's 107-run win in the first Test against England, Du Plessis was asked his opinion about plans for an annual 'Super Series' of one-day games, involving the so-called 'Big Three' of India, Australia and England, with one other country to be invited on a revolving basis. "The last year or so you can see what's going on in terms of the big three countries," he said.

"There's a lot of movement going towards that, a lot more matches being played against the top three, or big three. It's probably better if you include more teams, better to grow the game as much as you can."

Du Plessis pointed out that there was inequality of fixtures, especially in Test cricket, with new Test nations such as Ireland and Afghanistan struggling to get fixtures.

"There's a lot of smaller nations not playing a lot of Test cricket, they're actually playing less," he said.

To the relief of a nation whose cricket has been in crisis South Africa defeated England by 107 runs at Centurion. By definition miracles do not happen very frequently and, while England's upper order ensured no one was taking a South African win for granted throughout the first three hours of play, cricketing logic was eventually satisfied. So, too, was the new regime running South African cricket, which is now headed by Graeme Smith. This is a win that should help to regalvanise the game here.

In fact England did not lose this match on the final day. It was their batting on the second afternoon and their bowling on the third morning that handed the initiative to the South Africans, who held their nerve and discipline thereafter. Losing seven wickets for 39, conceding 124 runs in a session, many of which were scored by a true No 11, is a guaranteed recipe for defeat unless the game is taking place at Headingley.

The wickets were shared among the South African bowlers but maybe the decisive contribution on a bowlerfriendly surface came from Quinton de Kock, the highest runscorer in the Test. In total his forthright approach produced 129 runs, which was more than the margin of victory and he received the man of the match award.