Faf Du Plessis Wants To Usher In Next Leadership Generation
Former South African captain, Faf du Plessis wants to help groom the next leadership group for South African cricket, saying it was one of his key missions for next season.
“I will miss the captaincy, but now I need to move on to try and add value to help create new leaders,” Du Plessis said. “This is something I’ve looked at as my real purpose for next year. I think leadership is something we need to place some emphasis on in South African cricket and again, it’s an area I want to help in.”
The 35-year-old stepped down as captain of the national team in February. In a wide-ranging interview, Du Plessis says that whoever that player and the leadership group in general is, he wants to assist them to settle in so that the next generation of leaders are given the best possible chance of success. He admits it was a tough mental period. “The season gone by is probably been up there with one of the toughest I’ve had to face over my career,” the 65-Test veteran stated. “Because it had a lot of different elements to it that were not just about cricket. “Obviously it started with the World Cup being a very tough an emotional roller coaster for a lot of us, not just me… there were a lot of emotions that we went through and that was really tough. Du Plessis believes that a lack of experience was South Africa’s biggest hurdle, but he believes that now that the team has been given a sound backroom staff in place, they will be better placed for the future. “The one thing that was obvious for me was we couldn’t replace experience overnight,” he continued. “It was going to take some time. We also felt we needed to get some experience into our coaching staff. Enoch (Nkwe as interim Team Director during the tour to India) did a great job in India, but we felt that because we lacked for the first time in a long time experience in the team, we needed to fill that gap from an experience point of view with the coaches, so there was some good moves made with the coaching staff before England. “Again, we started well in the England series and the we fell away. Again, experience played a big role and that’s where we fell short. “Looking forward now, I think we’re in a position where I think we will start producing again. There are strong people in charge, plenty of experience and I think that will help South African cricket going forward.”
The 35-year-old stepped down as captain of the national team in February. In a wide-ranging interview, Du Plessis says that whoever that player and the leadership group in general is, he wants to assist them to settle in so that the next generation of leaders are given the best possible chance of success. He admits it was a tough mental period. “The season gone by is probably been up there with one of the toughest I’ve had to face over my career,” the 65-Test veteran stated. “Because it had a lot of different elements to it that were not just about cricket. “Obviously it started with the World Cup being a very tough an emotional roller coaster for a lot of us, not just me… there were a lot of emotions that we went through and that was really tough. Du Plessis believes that a lack of experience was South Africa’s biggest hurdle, but he believes that now that the team has been given a sound backroom staff in place, they will be better placed for the future. “The one thing that was obvious for me was we couldn’t replace experience overnight,” he continued. “It was going to take some time. We also felt we needed to get some experience into our coaching staff. Enoch (Nkwe as interim Team Director during the tour to India) did a great job in India, but we felt that because we lacked for the first time in a long time experience in the team, we needed to fill that gap from an experience point of view with the coaches, so there was some good moves made with the coaching staff before England. “Again, we started well in the England series and the we fell away. Again, experience played a big role and that’s where we fell short. “Looking forward now, I think we’re in a position where I think we will start producing again. There are strong people in charge, plenty of experience and I think that will help South African cricket going forward.”
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