Cape Town – Newly-appointed Proteas captain Faf du Plessis will not withdraw his appeal against his fine for ball tampering that is set for December 19 – just a week before he is scheduled to lead South Africa in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Port Elizabeth.
The International Cricket Council fined Du Plessis 100% of his match fee and awarded him three demerit points after footage emerged from the second Test against Australia in Hobart of the South African skipper applying saliva to the ball while he had a mint in his mouth.
Michael Beloff will hear the appeal as the Judicial Commissioner in Dubai with Du Plessis to join in via teleconference. There is the risk that Du Plessis, who was officially installed as South African captain on Tuesday after AB de Villiers resigned from the post, could be banned for one game and therefore miss the series opener against the Sri Lankans.
Du Plessis admitted that withdrawing the appeal “sounds like the logical thing to do” but he was not going to rescind on his principles.
“I didn’t agree with the way the whole thing was handled, and how it happened and unfolded. Even the hearing that took place, how everything works when it comes to those hearings. For me it’s the principle of standing up for something which you don’t agree with. That’s what a captain is all about for me and that you stand your ground for whatever the cause is,” Du Plessis said in his first press conference as the official Test captain of South Africa at Newlands on Wednesday.
Turning to on-field matters the new skipper also said that he would have liked to start the series against the Sri Lankans on the Highveld, but that the Boxing Day Test remains a highlight on the Proteas calendar regardless of the venue.
“We don’t get to choose where we want to start against different teams. We would have liked to start in Joburg, Centurion or even Kingsmead because it can be a little quicker at times. PE is obviously the Christmas Test and that’s a nice occasion for us. We do play really well there and we do have a good record there, so we’ll run on that. We must make sure, if we can, that the conditions don’t favour them too much,” Du Plessis said.
The national selectors have called up the uncapped Knights captain Theunis de Bruyn as batting cover for Du Plessis should the skipper be ruled ineligible for the St George’s Park Test.
Proteas Test squad: Faf du Plessis (capt), Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Stephen Cook, Theunis de Bruyn, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Dean Elgar, Keshav Maharaj, Wayne Parnell, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada.