Cape Town – Former “Affies” schoolmates AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis are the lone candidates to really jump out for replacing Graeme Smith as Test captain of South Africa.
Cricket South Africa say there is no special rush in naming the successor, after almost 11 years of virtually uninterrupted and often inspiring leadership from Smith, as the winter trips to Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe are still several months away.
It raises the possibility that one of the duo, the 29-year-old Du Plessis, will be particularly closely assessed as skipper of the Proteas’ team at the looming next major global event, the ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh later this month.