Faf not in the West Indies because he has no contract
Former Proteas captain Faf du Plessis was left out of the tour to the West Indies because he has no contract in place with Cricket South Africa, but negotiations are underway to possibly add him to the squad for the T20 matches that begin on June 26, Rapport can reveal.
While Du Plessis has retired from Test cricket and is generally considered a free agent these days, due to the current policies in place, if he had gone on tour to the West Indies he would have received no remuneration for the tour save for match fees, which are little more than a top-up for those players who are on contracts.
With the number of free agents only likely to increase with the rise of lucrative T20 leagues, it is a gap in CSA’s contracting system which director of cricket Graeme Smith is trying to fix in consultation with the South African Cricketers Association (the players’ union).
In the meantime, there is a chance that Du Plessis, who showed that he is still one of South Africa’s best T20 batsman with his strong showing in the suspended IPL, could reignite his T20 World Cup hopes by playing in the West Indies. For that to happen, the national selectors would have to agree to add him to the squad and Du Plessis would have to agree to special financial terms CSA will offer. The organisation budgeted for 17 national men’s contracts for the season but only awarded 16 of them, and the some of the money from that extra ‘salary’ is believed to be on offer for Du Plessis.
While there has been some talk of the selectors adopting a hardline stance to free agents going forward, to his credit convenor Victor Mpitsang cast a balanced tone with Rapport on Friday.
“It’s a no-brainer, Faf is still a helluva player and he has a wonderful record in T20 cricket. He’s not out of the World Cup running, but about a month ago it was decided that all free agents need to play domestically a bit as well to be chosen for the Proteas. People always talk about the West Indies and all their free agents, but they all come back and play in the Caribbean Premier League. We need to be fair in our system,” Mpitsang said.
The current policy for the contracting of Proteas sees the players ranked from No.1 to No.16, depending on the balance of Test, ODI and T20 matches in the next season, using scientific data methods. But free agents, who fall outside of that system, are what one CSA official described as “the elephant in the room that everyone has been avoiding”.
It’s another problem that Smith has inherited as director of cricket and issues like the one with Du Plessis are going to happen more and more. Checks and balances obviously need to be in place to ensure the free agents are not just using the Proteas to score lucrative T20 contracts elsewhere, but are actually contributing to the national team’s culture and success.
There is also the danger that if players are given format-specific contracts, then many could opt out of Test cricket and just play the white-ball formats.
On the other hand, the Proteas need to have marquee players that the top teams want to play against and that people want to watch in action, developing a strong team is obviously a key strategic objective of CSA.
Other prominent free agents who are not currently playing for the Proteas in T20 cricket are AB de Villiers, Imran Tahir and Chris Morris. It has been the same old story with De Villiers, with the superstar batsman seemingly poised for a comeback at the World Cup before once again pulling out, while the actual availability of Morris seems to be a point of contention.
The Proteas seem content to allow Tahir to drift into retirement and continue with Tabraiz Shamsi and their other orthodox spinners.
But there certainly seems to be a gap in the Proteas’ inexperienced batting line-up when it comes to Du Plessis, who has expressed his desire to keep playing through to the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia. The 36-year-old declined to comment on why he was not initially chosen for the Caribbean tour, but did confirm it was a contractual issue.
Free agents are a tough issue to handle in a way that ensures fairness for those players who are 100% involved in South African cricket, but the future success of the Proteas demands that CSA, the selectors and SACA somehow get on the same page and come up with an accord that allows these stars to still have some sort of contractual arrangement with CSA.
And in the short-term, gets Faf to the West Indies.