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Johannesburg - Proteas captain Faf du Plessis has backed calls for all sledging to be banned from international cricket.
This comes after Du Plessis spent yet another press conference on Thursday speaking about the controversy that has plagued his side's series against Australia since the first Test in Durban.
Just minutes before the press conference started, news broke of the ICC's decision to re-evaluate its own stance on ball-tampering and poor player conduct in general.
READ: Faf: I feel for 'good guy' Smith
Du Plessis referred to the ICC's announcement as "long overdue", and when asked if sledging should be banned altogether, he was for that too.
"I think so," the skipper said.
"I don’t think that sledging has had that much influence on the way people play. I think it’s something in the past that people maybe thought had a huge impact.
"Maybe there are one or two guys that still feel a bit more pressure when there is a bit of verbal on the field. For me, it motivates me when I hear people say things on the field.
"Generally, in cricket over the past two years I haven’t felt like that boundary has been pushed a lot with playing different teams."
The Australians, of course, are a different matter entirely with sledging having been an open part of their team culture for the entire modern era.
Du Plessis has never taken issue with that.
"As I said at the beginning of the series, we were expecting that from Australia and that’s the way they play," he offered.
"I’m not saying that’s right or wrong. Perhaps this is a nice opportunity for them to reassess how they want to play.
"I’ll be honest in saying that I feel that New Zealand are the front-runners in that. They play the game in a nice spirit and we try and do exactly that."
