Proteas Test captain Faf du Plessis is looking forward to working alongside Cricket South Africa acting chief executive officer Jacques Faul and director of cricket Graeme Smith.

Faul succeeded chief executive officer Thabang Moroe, who has been placed on precautionary suspension, earlier this week. His appointment was coupled with Smith’s agreement, in principle, to assume the fill the new role of director of cricket.

Also see: Five points on Smith’s agenda

‘It’s been a little bit on pause the last two or three weeks, which is already too late, so we need to make sure in the next week things will start unfolding to make sure the Test team gets the most attention. The last two weeks there hasn’t been much attention on that so that is what we will try and drive over the next week,’ said Du Plessis.

‘Now it’s about moving forward. I am a firm believer that it’s time for us to look ahead from all this crap that’s been happening behind the scenes. It’s about making sure that the players are focused on the cricket side of things.’

The Proteas will host England for four Tests at in Centurion, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg from late December 2019 to late January 2020.

Also see: Five points on Faul’s agenda

‘Obviously a lot has happened but now it’s a new start. There’s not much time before the English series, so now it’s about putting our focus back on to the team, making sure that the Test team gets all the things that are required for us to be successful,’ added Du Plessis.

Du Plessis is currently captaining the Paarl Rocks in the Mzansi Super League. The Rocks claimed a berth in 16 December’s final at Boland Park after beating the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants on Sunday.

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