Church Crisis
The resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, over historic abuse allegations is a moment of reckoning for the Church of England.
South Africa skipper Faf Du Plessis is not sold on the idea of a ‘Super Series of one-day games, involving the so-called ‘Big Three of India, Australia and England and has criticised the proposal.
“The last year or so you can see what’s going on in terms of the big three countries,” he said after South Africa beat England in Centurion by 107 runs on Sunday.
“There’s a lot of movement going towards that, a lot more matches being played against the top three, or big three. It’s probably better if you include more teams, the better to grow the game as much as you can,” he added.
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Du Plessis also spoke about new Test nations not getting enough game time.
“There’s a lot of smaller nations not playing a lot of Test cricket, they’re actually playing less,” he said.
On the victory, the Proteas captain hoped it was the start of a new chapter after off-field issues threatened to put their cricket on the back burner.
“It’s been a tough season for the Test team, and it’s been a while since our last victory,” he added at the press conference as quoted by the ICC.
“This week there was a really good feeling in the camp that we had done some good stuff before the Test match. We knew we needed to put in some performances to get the thing running.”
“As a team, we don’t have a lot of superstars,” du Plessis said. “You can say guys like KG [Rabada] and Vern [Philander] are superstars in their own right. But as a team, we take a lot more from victories where everybody contributes in their own way. Small things like Nortje getting 40 with the bat are even more pleasing … Our bowling unit was exceptional. All of them put their hands up.”
Du Plessis said the team’s fighting spirit was the most pleasing thing.
“It’s a South African thing. We are a team of fighters,” he said. “We love something to spark a little something like that. Our feeling was that when he comes in, we will do exactly the same thing to him,” he added.
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