The moment CSK lifted their fourth Indian Premier League title after defeating Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday, CSA made a congratulatory message over Twitter and Instagram that had only pacer Lungi Ngidi featuring in it among CSK’s South African stars.
That, when Ngidi failed to make the CSK playing XI during the UAE leg of IPL 2021 while Du Plessis and Tahir have been CSK legends, didn’t go down well at all with the Proteas fans.
Tahir, too, featured in only one game of the IPL 2021 for CSK, but Du Plessis was their second-highest run-getter in the tournament with 633 runs from 16 innings at an average of 45.21 and strike-rate of 138.20. The former South Africa captain made six half-centuries in the competition, including a pivotal knock of 86 off 59 balls in the final.
“Congratulations @lungingidi on claiming the 2021 IPL with Chennai Super Kings,”
CSA captioned a tweet and an Instagram post each containing Ngidi’s picture in CSK jersey, which were both deleted soon after fans unleashed their wrath on the board and its social media handler.
Amidst the negative reaction to CSA’s post, Du Plessis made it a point to ask the board why he has been missed deliberately from their congratulatory message before pace legend Dale Steyn also called out the CSA social media handler.
“Really???”, Du Plessis said in his response to the post, before Steyn joined in and expressed his displeasure of it.
Notably, both Du Plessis and Tahir, two of South Africa’s finest, are not included in the country’s squad for the T20 World Cup in Oman and the UAE despite playing well in leagues around the world and making themselves available for selection.
This and the contentious posts on Twitter and Instagram have added weight to the speculations of a rift between the board and the two cricketers.
