Brexit Might Help South African Cricket: Faf Du Plessis

The South African captain Faf du Plessis feels Brexit might help South African cricket in future. South Africa have lost many talented young cricketers in the last few years due to the Kolpak.

When a cricketer signs the Kolpak deal with the English counties, they don’t remain eligible to play for their international sides anymore.

The likes of Duanne Olivier and Kyle Abbott, who were world class fast bowling talents and could have done wonders for South Africa, signed for English counties which affected South Africa’s fast bowling reserves adversely.

Dale Steyn’s retirement from test cricket and Lungi Ngidi’s fragile fitness haven’t helped South Africa either.

But, Faf du Plessis thinks it might change after the Brexit. The Brexit will separate England from the European Union and the Kolpak rules might change.

There might be a scenario where the South African cricketers can sign for the counties and can still remain eligible to be picked for their international sides.

“Yes, that [Brexit] would benefit South African players. It’s sad for SA cricket. If you see Simon Harmer had an unbelievable season [in county cricket]. Maybe post Brexit the guys will still go and play there but you can still pick them for the country.” Du Plessis told the reporters after the Ranchi test match.

South Africa played some really poor cricket on their tour of India. They not only lost games, they lost them by huge margins. They lost two games by an innings. It was the first time in more than 8 decades that they suffered two innings defeats on the trot.

There are now question marks over the captaincy of Faf Du Plessis, but Faf has insisted that he has no plans of quitting and he would like to oversee the transition period that the South African team is going through at the moment.