Why South Africans are big in Texas
Half of Texas Super Kings' squad of 18 were born in South Africa. When Nandre Burger was ruled out, he was replaced by another South African, Dian Forrester. When Faf du Plessis missed a game, Donovan Ferreira took over the captaincy. The coaching staff includes Albie Morkel. The other five MLC teams have 14 South African-born players between them.
When Du Plessis hammered 113 off 52 against Seattle Orcas on June 18, Morkel said: "You have to admire his will to play. With the fitness levels he has, he's showing a new level of professionalism."
Du Plessis turns 42 on Monday. He has the conditioning of someone 10 years younger. Morkel cited Du Plessis travelling directly to the US after his Belgium team was eliminated: "That tells you the man still wants to play cricket. A lot of older guys would have taken days off. How long can he go for? Performances like this will probably add two seasons."
Call it the IPL satellite effect. Six TSK players were part of Joburg Super Kings in SA20. Chennai Super Kings signed Forrester to replace an injured Jamie Overton. He didn't play, but might in future.
Du Plessis played 155 IPL games, 92 of them for CSK from 2012 to 2021. Morkel played for six foreign franchises. Du Plessis has turned out for 14 T20 franchises in other countries, plus two in the Hundred and one in the Abu Dhabi T10.
No country has supplied more players to this year's MLC than South Africa's 23. Seven of those 23 have since become American.
The top run-scorer going into Friday was South African Lhuan-dre Pretorius. Ottneil Baartman was the top wicket-taker. Tristan Luus had the third-best economy rate.
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