‘Player safety was the main concern and we respect that’ – du Plessis

Concerns over player safety on a soft outfield caused three abandoned days in the Durban Test and an eventual draw, despite both teams being “very keen” to get on the park. Faf du Plessis and Mike Hesson said the South Africa and New Zealand camps were “extremely disappointed” and “frustrated” after playing only four out of 15 sessions, but respected the decision of umpires Ian Gould and Richard Illingworth not to allow further play.

“It’s up to the umpires to make an assessment of whether the ground is safe or not,” du Plessis said. “As cricketers or sportsmen, we generally don’t look at all the factors, we just want to get out there. From our perspective, we wanted to play but the general feeling was that the ground was unsafe. There were quite a few areas that were a bit muddy and a bit loose on the foot. They were very worried that if you were to sprint or make sudden movements on it, you could get badly injured. The message was pretty clear from the umpires that player safety was their main concern and we respect that.”

Kingsmead’s recently relaid outfield took 65 mm of rain on Saturday evening, which sunk into the sandy patches caused by the scarifying process that left scant grass in several areas. A full day of sun on Sunday and winds of up to 70kph on Monday were enough to dry it out but the ground underfoot did not harden and the match was called off before the scheduled start of play on Tuesday.

In particular, patches around the boundary and on the edges of the square were inspected by the umpires over the two days and were found to give way underfoot, highlighting what was …

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