Faf du Plessis surprised with no actions taken regarding the Bengaluru-DRS incident

South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis, admitted to being “surprised” after no charges were levied against Virat Kohli and Steve Smith regarding the breaches of International Cricket Council’s (ICC) code of conduct in the aftermath of the Bengaluru Test.

The intense Test at Bengaluru followed up with the Indian captain Virat Kohli accusing his counterpart Smith of looking at the dressing room for help before taking the DRS. Du Plessis thought that both their actions were more severe than his offence.

The 32-year-old South African skipper was charged by the ICC on account of shining the ball with the aid of an artificial substance three months ago. In November, during South Africa’s tour of Australia, Television footages showed that 32-year-old was caught chewing on a mint and then using saliva to shine the ball during the Hobart Test.

ICC further brought a case against du Plessis. Subsequently, he was found guilty of a level 2 offence and was fined 100% of his match fee alongside adding two demerit points on to his record. De Plessis made a valiant attempt to appeal the decision, but unfortunately, the decision stood. He believed that the punishment was harsh, as other teams like Australia too admitted that it shines the ball the same way.

When asked for his reaction regarding the Bengaluru fiasco, Du Plessis said he would have preferred stricter actions against the two.

“I was [surprised that no one was charged] purely from the reason of what I went through for something I feel was a lot smaller and a lot less… whatever you want to call it. So yes, surprised with that,” Du Plessis said after South Africa drew with New Zealand in Dunedin. “It [the reaction from the ICC] was different. I am surprised by the way it happened. Maybe it’s just because I speak on from a personal point of view and I felt that I was treated very harsh, but when you see something like that, you hope that it would be the same.”

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Du Plessis did not delve much into the incident of what he thought of either Kohli or Smith’s action. He did not expect the Test match against New Zealand to get as tense as the previous tours of India and Australia due to the differences in the way media has reported both these series.