Faf: Through Fire

Product Information

Du Plessis was also grateful for his mother’s tenderness and sensitivity that balanced his father’s strict and uncompromising approach to raising him. The only negative side to the book is that it does, especially closer to the end become slightly self righteous but I guess that's what any good Biography is. It was Mark coaching in the way that he knew best under extraordinary pressure and me finding it hard to adapt to a leadership approach that contrasted with mine in so many ways. The focus on soft skills drove Du Plessis to interact with players new to the team environment through regular coffee and meals. Given that he was a part of dominant teams since his school days featuring future internationals such as AB de Villiers, Neil Wagner, Kruger van Wyk, Heino Kuhn, and Jacques Rudolph, where they lost two games in three years, it must have been challenging for Du Plessis to come to terms with the long transition that the Proteas faced under his leadership.

I was sad and angry in the end to read about his experiences with Smith and Boucher and how Cricket South Africa treated him. This brutally honest, fascinating, introspective work provides a unique insight into the mind and heart of one of South Africa's most interesting and charismatic cricketers. He takes you through his mindset inside the field while playing some of his greatest and disappointing innings. This was essential after an unpleasant encounter with Proteas batter, Daryll Cullinan, who expostulated Du Plessis for disrespecting his seniority by sitting next to him.Du Plessis lays bare his growth from a youth with a questionable moral compass outside of cricket, to a leader known for his integrity, values, honesty and empathy for his teammates. Although the book gets a little repetitive at times and loses the grip, it was overall an interesting read, that keeps hooked till the end. This was a really good book, but a tough read as there is a lot of repetition and some of the details behind events can become a bit exhaustive.

To lead a South African team that was unable to replicate similar feats must have tugged at Du Plessis’ heartstrings, seeing that he was leading winning teams from such a young age.It’s quite possible that I was still part of Mark’s plans for the future, but he had an approach to leadership that didn’t include soft skills and relational interactions. The disappointment he experienced at seeing a number of rituals that were instated during his captaincy no longer being followed is evident in his writing.