While speaking on RCB Podcast Season 2, the second of the 10 episodes, du Plessis revealed how he learnt the captaincy art from various cricketers like Graeme Smith, Stephen Fleming, and MS Dhoni.
“I always had this leadership perspective of learning from great leaders, it (leadership) was always something that I was fascinated about. When I initially came into the South African team, Graeme Smith was the captain. I was like, Wow, this guy’s got an amazing presence when he speaks — like this big, blinding roar at you, and he just dominated the room while speaking. So I was like, that’s a leader, right?,” he said.
However, Faf was soon familiarized with an altogether different school of leadership, propagated by MS Dhoni at CSK.
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“I got an opportunity to go to Chennai as a young-ish phase in my career. Stephen Fleming is one of the great leaders within the game, obviously, for New Zealand cricket also. The different aspect was him being a man manager, a guy who just works on relationships. And I go, Wow, that’s impressive. During my first season at CSK, I was sitting next to him (Fleming) and just asked him questions about captaincy and leadership, just to learn as much as I can. And then you put MS on top of that, and you go, Wow, this guy’s tactically odd to read the game like this. And you go, Okay, he is impressive as a captain.
“I think what was really good for me to go through was, even with all of that, the conviction that I am not going to be Graeme Smith as a captain, I’m not going to be Stephen Fleming as a captain, I’m not going to be MS Dhoni as a captain. In order for me to be true to who I am as a person, I need to be me. Because if you’re not being you, then people will see through it, maybe not when you’re doing well but definitely when you are under pressure, or underperforming, the real you will reveal itself,” he said.
Faf also disclosed what drove him to lead the team with a sense of purpose.
“I think as a cricketer, the moment that reaffirmed to me and told me that I belong at this level and I want to be at this level… was (the moment) like, you belong here. So that moment was from where, I was just like, this is what I want to do. Yeah, I became super purpose driven. After that, I became the Proteas, the Heartbeat if I could say that. I lived and breathed everything about Cricket South Africa.
“Then now at this next chapter in my life, I found this new purpose and especially now with RCB, as I said you’ve got something that really lights your desire inside you. Yeah, I want to do something special and then that gives you a new sense of purpose because I don’t want to play just for the sake of playing. There’s always something that drives me more than just the Rands or whatever,” said du Plessis.