Faf du Plessis
How Ramsbottom CC played a big part in his cricket career
FAF du Plessis made an immediate impact on his return to England following the birth of his child – but that’s nothing new for a man who walked in the footsteps of former Aussie captain, Michael Clarke, on route to the top.
South Africa’s captain spent half a season with Ramsbottom in the Lancashire League in 2010, eight years after Clarke had played for the club.
It was Du Plessis’s third spell in England, with the Pretoria-born 33-year-old having played for Todmorden in the 2007 season and Nottinghamshire Premier League side, Mansfield Hosiery Mills, 12 months earlier.
What’s particularly remarkable about his time at Ramsbottom, though, was that he wasn’t supposed to be there at all.
“We were due to have Usman Khawaja as our overseas pro but he got a call-up to the Aussie Test team,” says Andy Dalby, Ramsbottom’s cricket chairman.
“I gave Faf a call and he was in the middle of a game of ten-pin bowling with AB de Villiers. Having seen them both play sport, I would imagine that was pretty high class, too.
“He ended up playing for us for half a season on a short-term deal before Alex Doolan arrived from Tasmania. He played for Australia the following season, too.”
It was an all-star cast at Ramsbottom, although that’s nothing new for a club that has played host to Clarke, David Hookes, Keith Arthurton, Chris Harris and Brad Hodge in the past.
Du Plessis scored 392 at an average of 78 in seven matches that season, as well as taking 11 wickets at a cost of just 13 during the regular league campaign.
It was one game in the T20 Cup, though, that sticks in Dalby’s mind.
“He just had this aura around him – we knew that he was going to end up doing bigger and better things,” he says.“You could tell he was going places. There was this one match where he was up against Farhaan Behardien, who was playing for Colne at the time in the T20 Cup.
“The scorecard was something incredible. It was overseas pro against overseas pro, with both of them taking wickets and scoring hundreds. Faf ended up taking an unbelievable caught and bowled to get rid of Behardien in the penultimate over to win it for us. People still talk about it now, it was just one of those matches that you’ll never forget.
“To be honest, his fielding was just incredible. Phenomenal actually. We had one of the best training sessions in our history one night. He just turned up and said ‘right, no nets tonight, we’re just going to do fielding’.What an absolute education it was. He took the lads out on the square and just gave a masterclass in how to do it. It was absolutely inspirational.
“You can see he even stands out at Test level in the field and what he did in the field and in practice while he was here has stuck with everyone.
“We won the league that year and the T20 Cup, too. The only competition we lost was the oneday cup when he had left.
“He was due to come back the following season for a full campaign but then the Chennai Super Kings came in with an offer we just couldn’t match. No amount of bar taking would have delivered that many zeroes!”
With the Old Trafford Test beginning in early August, Du Plessis will not be short of local support, with most of Ramsbottom heading down to see a club legend in action.
England will hope he will not enjoy it as much as his captaincy return at Trent Bridge.