Get Jean du Plessis a contract
Young batter scoring runs in the darkness.
When he got to England, Basil D’Oliviera was box office material, but not quite on the level of Learie Constantine levels. When the West Indies player arrived at Nelson Cricket Club in the Lancashire League, the club was in debt. They couldn’t rub two pennies together and things turned around almost overnight after Constantine’s arrival.
Constantine’s was a money-making spectacle. His fielding was outstanding and his bowling was out of this world. He once took ten wickets for ten runs. His primary skill, his batting, was unmatched. He once scored a century in just over half an hour. He once made 192 – a ridiculous score in Saturday afternoon league cricket.
According to Simon Lister, sometimes Nelson attracted ‘14 000 spectators at their ground. The league had 14 clubs, but Nelson brought in 75 per cent of its total match receipts. In 1934, when a different league tried to sign Constantine, the other Lancashire League clubs tipped in money to help Nelson keep him where he was.’
D’Oliviera was not on Constantine’s level of superstardom, but he was a star. When he arrived in English league cricket, he decimated bowling attacks and scored hundreds for fun.
His attacking style of play meant that he was overlooked for first-class cricket. It took him four years of league cricket before he received his maiden first-class cap. And once he got there, he dominated, again. And soon found himself playing international cricket. D’Oliviera was in his late 20s when he made his first-class debut.
His one regret was that the outside world had missed out on watching him at his best. Perhaps if he had gone to England four or five years earlier, his star could have shone brighter. Sadly, it spent too much time under a bushel.
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South Western Districts isn’t one of those sides that gets the spotlight. They develop players in the same manner a mycologist farms mushrooms, in low light. Many only notice SWD players after they leave. The world only realised Ottniel Baartman's yorkers and potential after he left his home.
At 23, Jean du Plessis captained SWD and was hitting 100s, decimating Division 2 bowlers. Everything about him showed that he was an above-average talent performing in a league he was too good for. In 2023, du Plessis came alive. In his last 14 innings or seven first-class matches, du Plessis has scored 882 at an average of 80.18. Six centuries, one of them a double century, and two half-tons.
His last ton, a match-saving 120 runs for the Gbets Rocks, came in the second innings against the DP World Lions. This was du Plessis’ maiden foray into Division 1 cricket, the Boland team had him on a one-match loan, and he showed the world that he was more than equipped for the higher standard of play. Even more telling was his strike rate, du Plessis was going at a rate of 61.85%, the highest rate among Rocks’ batters.
His conversion rate is not limited to red-ball cricket, in 2023-24, du Plessis averaged 60.6 in List A cricket in six matches where he scored two centuries and has no half-tons to his name. In both formats, du Plessis has reached 50 10 times and converted eight of those 50s into big scores.
Jean du Plessis fills his boots against both weak and strong domestic attacks and showed his mettle when he played for SA A. In December he scored a century and an unbeaten 50 against an India A attack with Shardul Thakur, Tushar Deshpande and Prasidh Krishna.
Jean du Plessis is close to his peak years. The talk in cricket circles is that batters mature at around 28. But, already, some of his most productive years are being lost to him facing weaker attacks at a level below his standard. The downside of this is that batters tend to get comfortable and develop bad habits because facing low-quality bowlers is too easy and doesn’t require much application.
Like Basil D’Oliviera before his move to England, du Plessis is playing his best cricket in the dark and when he eventually gets noticed and makes the move up, he probably won’t be as exciting as he is at the moment.
Someone, please, get Jean du Plessis into Division 1.
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Thanks for reading. Until next time… - CS