Du Plessis pleads for action to safeguard South Africa’s future

In the aftermath of Kyle Abbott and Rilee Rossouw taking Kolpak deals, Test captain Faf du Plessis has asked his country’s cricket administrators to act quickly to prevent more players from leaving. The pair have joined Stiaan van Zyl, Hardus Viljoen and Simon Harmer – all of whom have been capped in the last two seasons – in effectively ending their international careers and du Plessis does not want to see more talent lost.

“It’s a red flag and we have to address it. It’s important that we look at how we can learn from this and make sure that this isn’t something that two years from now, has meant we’ve lost 10 or 15 players and we say, ‘oopsie’, du Plessis said. “We need to make sure we get better at it. There’s too much talent in South Africa to lose guys like that.”

Du Plessis identified three general reasons for players packing up and placed Abbott’s somewhere in the midst of those but hoped Cricket South Africa (CSA) will take all of them seriously. “Opportunity, money, transformation – there’s a lot of things that different guys will look at as their excuse or their reason for going overseas. Every single reason that is causing players to leave is a concern and we need to look at every single one of them,” du Plessis said.

“I can tell you directly that’s not Kyle’s reason for leaving. We’ve spoken about it and it’s more the point of view of security and what the future holds. He’s someone who has been not sure [of playing] for a very long time. Possibly inside he just wants to be sure. We know Kyle and we respect him for what he’s done for us as a team, and I respect his decision. I don’t agree with it but I respect it.”

From a financial perspective, Haroon Lorgat, the CSA chief executive, admitted that their “declining currency” makes it difficult to retain talent and they cannot simply throw more money at the problem. CSA has substantial cash reserves but they would set a dangerous precedent that would encourage more players to seek deals overseas as bargaining chips

Lorgat made it clear that if he had been able to engage with Abbott on the issue, it would not have been with chequebook in hand. “It’s not cash, cash and cash. It’s pride, career, conversations. It’s the investment that we make in them holistically,” Lorgat said. “Right now we have got some world-class stars who are not here because we …

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