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Cape Town - The Proteas, for the first time in a long time, have a "real energy" about coming home to play domestic cricket.
That is the view of national captain Faf du Plessis.
The Proteas have just returned home from a three-match ODI series and a one-off T20I against Australia, in Australia, and they will now be taking a couple of days off to recover before getting stuck into the Mzansi Super League (MSL).
Every one of the Proteas players who were in Australia will feature in the new-look T20 tournament, which got underway at Newlands on Friday.
Du Plessis, who will be captaining the Paarl Rocks, explained on Monday at Cape Town International Airport that the Proteas had watched some of the weekend action while they were on a layover in Singapore.
"We had a very long stop-over in Singapore so we had some time to kill. For the first time there is a real energy amongst the national players about domestic cricket," Du Plessis said.
"I can't remember any stage where the whole team got together and watched a domestic game back home. It's really excited and obviously now we get to play against each other. "
While the quality of cricket on offer this weekend was of an undoubtedly high standard, the six franchises are set to get even stronger when the Proteas start featuring from this weekend.
"It's great for the supporters that you'll have the best domestic players and also your international players playing," Du Plessis added.
"So far the competition has been awesome and yesterday (Sunday) was a great game of cricket in Paarl.
"I think cricket in South Africa is on the up."
The MSL returns on Tuesday when the Paarl Rocks host the Jozi Stars. Du Plessis will not play in that match.
