Will de Villiers, Amla and du Plessis retire from Test cricket in April?

Gibson said Markram is captain in waiting that's why he was offered the opportunity to fill in.

As do smartasses when called for it...

I agree with most of your points Bakkies but see a big difference between Graeme Smith being given the captaincy full time in all formats and the relative authority that goes with that . Markram was merely a stop gap in Du Plessis' absence . Faf will be the test , odi and T20 skipper as long as he wants the job. But kudos on a very good post.

i get it, i'm wasting my breath.

Oh boy Fergus....you'll be typing many a similar response to a David Lord article. Feedback disappears into thin air here.

Given the team politics involved and the partnerships required in Cricket especially at the international level it is too many players to lose in a short period of time. I have predicted this for a while. You can have a strong bowling attack however it is tough when your batting lineup is getting knocked over for 250 or less. That's what happens when you have a green batting lineup. Elgar who is consolidating himself in to a good test cricketer is going to be the senior and key batsman. Can SA build a young batting lineup around Elgar? An option is to pick De Kock as a batsman when he gets his form back and offer the gloves to Klaasen. Then you have the captaincy issue. I don't agree with Markram filling in as one day captain. If these players all go soon this is not the same as Graeme Smith taking over with limited experience. Smith had experienced Cricketers like Boucher, Pollock, etc to delegate roles to and also contribute tactically. Markram has also had a few low scores recently and needs to build up partnerships with his fellow openers. Australian cricket had this problem as Hayden and Gilchrist went soon after Martyn, Langer, Warne and McGrath. Ponting and Hussey had issues with form, Clarke had been dropped from memory. There were some good bowlers left but that didn't last long as Lee, Dizzy and MacGill couldn't keep the attack going. Selectors start to panic pushing players through very early, they're not as patient as they used to be.

David your article was difficult to follow at times and full of superfluous information. You started off with the question will these 3 players retire? (if you even did the title) Then went into interesting but unnecessary trivia on the two times 3 players have retired at the same time; listed their combined career stats and individual achievements. Then in the middle of all that you included the completely irrelevant information that is the 4 players to score centuries on debut and retirement. There's nothing wrong with mentioning it but giving detailed stats is overkill when it's not directly relevant to your article. The premise of your article is 3 other SA players will retire at the end of the series. That begs the question why? At no point in the article do you answer this question or give any reasoning for your opinion. Sure most of it would be huge speculation as you don't know the players personally but at least pointing out they're old would be something rather then the nothing you have given. if you had started off saying if these 3 players retire it will be an event rarely seen in test cricket then the rest of your article makes tons more sense (wouldn't be surprised if you were absent minded), but you didn't so it doesn't. I hope you interpret this as some constructive feedback not having a go at you. By the way as i'm new is there a proper way to give feedback on articles?

Du Plessis would be a big , big surprise . He seems to be enjoying his cricket and thriving as captain . AB De Villiers no surprise as he has been in a state of semi-retirement for a few years now. Steyn has been in de facto retirement for some time now. I also do not see Amla calling it a day just yet . Morkel will be a big loss. All teams inevitably have to go through this changing of the guard . The rest of the Proteas teams stars are amazingly young , Rabada , Ngidi , De Kock , Markram all representing the future . All in their early twenties. Add in Klaasen , Maharaj , Bavuma and Phelukwayo and make an offer to Abbott and Riley Rossouw , especially that of fair selection and security and the future still looks bright. Whats the panic.

Spruce Kyle Abbott was a huge loss on a Kolpak deal and telling the board he was done as an international player. Hewould have been a candidate to replace Morkel.

I am surprised that Faf is there to as he was a late comer to test Cricket. I believe that the next time SA tour Australia it will be a five test series. There is also the World Cup next year that SA are desperate to win.

Fair enough, thanks for that Ronan. odd that a guy that came into the side somewhat later on than many would feel the need to retire so early, especially when you're captain. Is it just an Indian/Australian/English thing to play into your late 30s? Does Faf have some big T20 contracts he is missing out on? Does he carry some sort of permanent injury like Clarke?

Not sure retirement talk is going to be enough to put these guys off their game - we'll need to come up with something better!!

Gee their team could look vastly different in a couple of years time, Maybe we will see something like; Markram, Elgar, de Bruyn, Klaasen, Bavuma, de Kock, Morris, Maharaj, Rabada, Phehlukwayo, Ngidi I may be missing some obvious ones? Not sure how their batting depth with stack up, as they at least seem fairly well covered to replace Morkel/Philander/Steyn in the long term All the names potentially going out the door in the next 1-2 years show what a massive rebuild it could be

South Africa have already lost Abbot and others to country cricket, I think country cricket has been buttered up with cash for England to bring its own form of the IPL or Big bash. South Africa will be the big losers because of Kolpak. If that replacement competition has no foreign player restrictions then thats going to impact all the other poorer Test nations that are not covered under Kolpak. So we will be seeing test cricket reduced to three full strength teams from the countries that pay well, and the rest will be like the current West Indies side. The irony is its going to be Test crickets own money that will be paying for this, the ICC needed to introduce top up payments for international cricketerss from poorer countries.

Bush, Faf has previously said he was looking at next year's World Cup as his swansong for all formats, so retirement is definitely on his mind.

Greez at 33, having only played 48 tests and only really recently being captain, it seems incredibly premature for Faf to retire. You'd think South Africa would want about two years out of him.

The massive re-build is going to be an equally massive challenge when two other factors are considered 1. Kolpak deals as a lure for South Africans to earn money in a more stable environment. 2. The quota system (which in turn leads affected white players to turn to Kolpak). Hence why I think CSA will be desperate to stage manage this.

David I don't have any inside info regarding any of this but it is certainly very possible that, with Morkel now retiring, SA could easily lose six gun players to retirement in the next 18 months - Morkel, Steyn, Philander, AB, Amla and Faf. Morkel is retiring, Steyn's body seems shot, and there were persistent media reports in South Africa about 18 months ago that all 3 of Philander, Amla and AB were seriously considering retirement, so any of them could retire in the very near future. Faf, meanwhile, will be 35 in just over a year from now so he, too, looks to be very much at the end of his career. SA are headed for a cliff's edge - they're going to need to go through a massive rebuild soon enough.

Couldn't have said it better myself Spruce.