Ask a 10-year-old cricketer if playing the game is fun and the answer would be an incandescent, incredulous, “Yes!” Put the same question to the same cricketer 20 or so years later and, while still positive, the answer may have lost its exclamation mark and some of its sparkle.
Because, from the outside, playing international cricket doesn’t look like fun. It looks like unfairness. Why should you have to entertain the myth that you represent a nation just because a country’s name is on your playing shirt? Why should you have to put up with pressure from the public, the politicians and the press? Why should you have to endure online abuse from people who will never play cricket as well as you do?
“I still see playing for South Africa as the biggest stage. Is it always fun? No, but that’s sport; sport’s not always fun. You get ups and downs. Even in the franchise world, it’s not always fun. You go to places where you don’t necessarily want to spend six, seven, eight weeks. Whereas when you’re playing for South Africa you’re with friends and you’re representing your country.
Du Plessis was speaking at the SA20 “captains’ day” press conference at a Cape Town hotel on Tuesday. To his far right sat a bright-eyed Tristan Stubbs, who is more than 16 years his junior. Between Stubbs and Du Plessis were seated Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, league commissioner Graeme Smith and Kagiso Rabada – who isn’t captaining Cape Town, but was place-holding for Rashid Khan as he makes his way from the ILT20. Aiden Markram was to Du Plessis’ left.