Du Plessis excited to nurture next generation
FAF du Plessis’ generally relaxed and sunny disposition will be tested over the coming weeks and months.
These are troubling times for South African cricket. Du Plessis perhaps more than most will feel that intimately. Captaining the Proteas means a lot to him and the World Cup failure cut deep.
There was little consultation with him about ending Ottis Gibson’s tenure as coach and he was still supportive of Gibson staying on less than 24 hours before Cricket SA axed him. It appears he had little input into the new structure around the national team also, or that Enoch Nkwe was made interim Team Director. He wasn’t included in the T20 team for the threematch series against India and the level of communication from Cricket SA to him about that decision was reflected in his reiterating to international media, that he remained captain of the Proteas T20 side and that Quinton de Kock was only a temporary holder of the position.
Players and Nkwe have pointed out that in the wake of Gibson’s axing, things moved quickly around the national team as everyone sought to position themselves amidst the new roles created. Nkwe described having a lot of sleepless nights before boarding the plane for Mumbai.
Meanwhile Du Plessis had brief stints playing in the Canadian T20 League and with Kent in England before heading to India and hopefully there has been time for him to talk with Nkwe and interim Director of Cricket Corrie van Zyl about the new structure around the national side.
How much long-term planning there has been no one can tell. Presumably not much with Cricket SA’s chief executive, Thabang Moroe, saying last week that he wants the position of Director of Cricket filled permanently by the end of October.
Du Plessis also had to come to terms with the loss of Dale Steyn and Hashim Amla as teammates, leaving the current crop of Proteas short of experience, especially of playing in the sub-continent where in the last five years South Africa have struggled.
Seldom has a Proteas team gone into a Test series with so little expected of it. In a positive sense the lack of expectation can ease pressure but it could also be indicative of a group of players that isn’t good.
Du Plessis views it as an opportunity; for the players who will fill positions vacated by some modern greats of the team, and for himself as captain. “You’ve lost all your experience. What that does though is allow (the chance) for the growth of new leadership in our team. The next best fast bowlers - who are they going to be? The next Hashim Amla, who is that going to be? So that is exciting for me to be working with young guys at the moment,” he said ahead of the first Test which starts in Visakhapatnam today.
After India the Proteas host England in the South African summer. South Africa haven’t won a Test series against England in seven years.
“I really enjoy the challenge that brings the best out of me. You have to look forward – you can’t look at the teams you’re facing and go ‘oh dear we’re playing some really strong opposition’. You have to face it head on, it’s a real good time for me to be involved with a young team.”
And hopefully those young players; like Theunis de Bruyn, Zubayr Hamza, and even though he’s no longer a rookie, Aiden Markram, do step up. Others like vice captain Temba Bavuma, Keshav Maharaj and Kagiso Rabada have been on the international circuit for five years and are the team’s new senior core. Du Plessis needs them by his side, if his sunny nature is to remain intact. AT 33, Louis Picamoles will be the oldest player wearing a blue jersey when France take on the US in today’s World Cup clash in Fukuoka, but the back-row enforcer does not want to be seen as “big brother” to his younger teammates.
Picamoles will captain callow France for the first time in his career of 80 Tests, having come off the bench to play a key role in the nerve-jangling win over Argentina last week.
Leading from the front while regular captain Guilhem Guirado starts on the bench, Picamoles felt humbled by the honour but did not see himself changing much in his approach to dealing with the youngest team at the World Cup during the Pool C clash.
“Yes, I’m very proud that I am to lead the team tomorrow, however, I’ve become very familiar with the team so nothing changes,” he told reporters yesterday. “I don’t regard myself as being a big brother, I just want to give everything I have to the team. “We are a strong group, there is a good mixture of young players and veterans, I don’t really care about the generation gap. I have been paying attention to that, but I don’t think it’s a big problem.”