South African Test and Twenty20 skipper Faf du Plessis believes the new Twenty20 Global League will put much-required curb on the Kolpak deals which have recently hit the South African cricket that not only saw the Proteas losing out on pool of talent, but the players had revealed they are not earning enough to meet the requirements before looking forward to securing the future.
“I think this is a huge step towards that [Kolpak]. This is going to be really important to keeping most of the players in the country,” du Plessis was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.com when the batsman was speaking about the launch of the league in London.
It becomes pertinent to mention, du Plessis, who has become a vital cog for South Africa in the middle-order, has himself been the part of English County side Lancashire through Kolpak deal in 2010-11 before returning to South Africa. He further revealed the T20 competition is a significant step in reducing the players opting for a Kolpak rule.
Interestingly, du Plessis the 32-year-old Pretoria-born du Plessis returned to the South Africa which saw him cement his place in the limited-overs cricket.
“Players don’t have to look outside anymore, from an opportunity point of view and from a financial point of view – they don’t need to go overseas and look for other stuff,” du Plessis revealed.
The T20 competition would also witness the top players from South Africa featuring in the event, as du Plessis believes the tournament will help the players to taste the domestic cricket which they have been missing most of the times owing to long foreign schedule while being on the national duty.
“We’ve always come back from long tours and there was a lot of important cricket coming up so we haven’t always been around to play as much domestic cricket as was needed,” du Plessis remarked.
It’s pertinent to mention, the Kolpak deals are only possible when a country like South Africa signs the agreement with the European Union on the basis of a trade deal which further can see the players opting for England become the home players eventually under the accord.
“I spoke about it when the Kolpak thing started happening in South Africa – it was probably important that South Africa looked at different ways to try and keep players in the country,” du Plessis maintained.
The middle-order batsman du Plessis believes the new competition back in South Africa would help the talented youth to showcase their talent on one of the big platforms which would further witness the services of marquee players across the cricket world.
“You always just get your international players getting good opportunities everywhere around the world, but this will be a great opportunity for the domestic players to put their names out there to the world,” du Plessis concluded.
Du Plessis has played 113 One-day Internationals, 40 Tests and 36 Twenty20 Internationals for South Africa. At the average of 44.92, he has amassed 5,737 runs in the longer format, whereas, he has scored 4,777 runs at an average of 43.41 in ODIs which included eight centuries and 28 half-centuries.