He has announced his retirement from test cricket, After two years of failure in all formats of cricket - why does he want to continue to play limited over cricket? It is because of the upcoming T20I WC and for him to stay on will mean that he will contribute to failure at the WC.
I would say thanks for your wonderful contribution to cricket in SA - but you really have like some others should have elft earlier than you did.
Dave
I think his replacement is likely to be Raynard van Tonder.
Tragic hey
Mike
...Ma ynard... he's a great batsman hey!
Thanks Chippo - I corrected his name. By the way his nickname is Razor and he is n o called that for nothing,
Thanks Chippo - I corrected his name. By the way his nickname is Razor and he is n o called that for nothing,
Decent player but won't be remembered like his pal AB.
He'll be on t v or a coach before his feet are cold.
Give him some credit.
He saved the Proteas in Aussie and was able to put a few scores on the board.
But as a captain he was average mainly due to a bunch of substandard players who should never ever have gained selection but for politics.
Faf, thank you for your effort and all the best.
AJH
I always was an admirer of Faf for years. If he left the national teams after the WC disaster of 2019 he would have left in a blaze of glory despite the poor WC performances - by staying on he damaged his reputation and was part of the decline of SA cricket over the past three years,
CM it is hard for professional players to retire money wise even after the horse has bolted.
Smit, Matfield are glowing examples of being over the hill and for one or other reason stayed on, and in so doing blew their legacies.
Just look at the money (Rand's) the players make in the IPL for instance, Tough to give that up once you are accustomed to that type of income.
But Faf did his best and for that we need to acknowledge him.
I think you are correct about him retiring after 2019 but once he lost the Skipper role I am sure he wanted to prove to himself and all us critics that he was still able to perform at that level of the game.
AJH
Giving up for instance his test career does not mean that he will not play IPL cricket. I listened to the player auction yesterday for the IPL. - Du Plessis was retained by his club and is earning about $400 000 for a competition lasting 8 weeks. He and AB has been in that series for more than a decade - the latter used to be paid when he started around $1 250 000 when he started playing in that series a decade ago. What he is earning at present is not public knowledge - but it is likely to be about double that amount. That is why it is estimate that his present worth is more than R400 000 000.
During the auction yesterday the most expensive player auctioned was Chris Morris who were sold to a new club for R32 700 000. and that for playing for 8 weeks. De Kock has been playing in the IPL for 7 years and what he was paid initially was $485 000 - on transfer to another club he took a bit of a reduction in wages - but what he earned now is anybody's guess. His Club Mumbai Indians won the series in 2019 and 2020 and in both years he was the highest run-scorer for them. So he may earn as much as 50% more by now.
By the way the income of Steve Smith was reduced by more than 80% yesterday and his new selling price cause an income loss of more than R19 000 000.
None of the players in SA earn starvation wages - so the money earned in India goes directly into investments. Faf was according to SAC paid R4 500 000 per year the past two years and in SA and that still is a huge salary. He may lose part of that income by stopping to play test cricket - but he would still be a multi-millionaire in US dollar terms.