I had urged Faf du Plessis not to take up Kolpak deal as his debut was close, says AB de Villiers
AB de Villiers has stated that Faf du Plessis had contemplated a second county cricket stint after his contract had expired but he managed to convinced the current skipper to wait for his debut. Du Plessis eventually went on to make his limited overs debut for South Africa in January 2011.
Faf du Plessis was playing his trade in country cricket for Lancashire from 2008 to 2010. In 2011, there was a change in rules and he had to sign up a Kolpak contract in order to continue playing for his domestic side. However, AB de Villiers, who was a part of the South African team then, had urged du Plessis to not take up the deal as his international debut in the coming season was likely.Ā De Villiers opened up on the incident on Gaurav Kapurās Youtube show āBreakfast with Championsā.
"There was a moment when he was thinking of signing for one of the English counties. He did call me up, and said what do I think about it? I said listen, not a long time from now there will be a few retirements, a few guys will step down, and you're pretty close. And the coaches and the team are talking about you, so just hang in a little bit longer,āĀ de Villiers.
āAnd finally the breakthrough came. I'm not taking credit for that, but we did have that conversation. And I'm very happy I was straight up with him,ā added the 35-year-old.
Both the players were childhood rivals during their school days but eventually became teammates and friends in their teenage days when they joined the same school - Afrikaanse HoĆ«r Seunskool, also known as 'Affies', in their hometown Pretoria. De Villiers got his cap at the age of 20 in December 2004 itself whereas du Plessis had to wait until 2011. Interestingly, it was du Plessis who took up the mantle of captaining the Proteas when de Villiers relinquished his role of a skipper in 2017. āMr.360ā, as he is fondly called due to his abilities hit shots all around the ground, felt that his childhood mate had debuted at a mature age.
"It happened quite quickly for me. A couple of doors opened up, and I put my hand up at the right time. He waited a bit longer. The path he walked was a different one, but it set him up perfectly for international cricket. I think he was mentally in a great space when he finally made his debut,ā concluded the former skipper.
