Why is Faf du Plessis not playing for South Africa?

Leading the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) since the previous season, former South African skipper Faf du Plessis has been in decent enough batting form across the different T20 leagues he has played across the world in the past few months.

However, he continues to remain an absentee in South Africa’s national team across the White-Ball format, despite having only formally announced his retirement from the Tests in February 2021. In fact, the 38-year-old last played an ODI in July 2019, and a T20I in December 2020.

Having said that, du Plessis continues to remain available for selection across these two formats, but it is the contract-related issues between him and Cricket South Africa (CSA) which has not managed to find a common ground as yet, as the delay continues with respect to his return back in South African colours.

Why is Faf du Plessis not playing for South Africa?

The crux of the problem are the terms and conditions of CSA’s central contract handed out to its players. With du Plessis an important part of whichever team he plays for across the various overseas T20 leagues, their schedule naturally coincide with South Africa’s bilateral series against international teams.

This is the very reason he retired from the Test format as well – to focus on playing the shorter formats including the T20 World Cup 2021 along with the T20 leagues. However, not only has he not played for South Africa ever since, but did not find a place in either the 2021 or the 2022 T20 World Cup.

Unlike most other international Cricket boards, CSA is yet to consider issuing single-format contracts for its players, and thus prioritizes those players who are available to play for the national side across the three formats.

Thus, du Plessis wishes to come up with an agreement where he is compensated by CSA for the losses he incurs while he misses out on playing the overseas T20 league games, when he would represent South Africa across the bilateral international fixtures during the same time.

“I think they wanted people that are available all the time. That made it a challenge for the guys like myself and Imran Tahir, because we were playing overseas [franchise leagues] as well. So I think that’s the challenge now, because we are playing overseas, if they don’t want us to play all the games, it’s probably an unrealistic expectation,” du Plessis had remarked after not being selected for the 2021 T20 World Cup.

Can du Plessis make a comeback in South African team?

Under South Africa’s present head coach Rob Walter, and Director of Cricket Enoch Nkwe, CSA is considering issuing single-format contracts to its players.

Single-format contracts might help the board remunerate its players enough to prioritize playing for their national sides, and with eyes on next year’s T20 World Cup, du Plessis might well be back for the Proteas if indeed that happens.

“What we foresee in the near future, maybe even the next 12 months, is that we might even go more specifically to T20, ODI and Test contracts. Those are some of the things that we’re actually looking at,” remarked Enoch Nkwe during an interaction with ESPNcricinfo last month.