“Kids Need Icons”: Faf du Plessis

For Faf du Plessis, the ETPL is about more than bringing some of cricket’s biggest names to the Netherlands. It is about giving the next generation something every young sportsperson needs: someone to look up to.

As the Rotterdam Dockers are ready to bring international stars and emerging European talent together, the Dockers’ captain believes the ETPL can create lasting memories for children who may be experiencing high-level cricket for the first time.

"What's really important in any sport around the world, kids need icons. They need heroes. They need people that they can see and go, 'Man, I want to be that guy. I want to do what he does,'" du Plessis said.

It is a philosophy rooted in his own childhood. Long before he became an international cricketer, du Plessis was inspired by players who made him want to play the sport. Interestingly, one of those figures was another member of the Rotterdam Dockers family and South African great Jonty Rhodes.

"Strangely enough, Jonty Rhodes was one of those memories for me as a young boy. I didn't think of batting or performance. I looked at someone that played the sport in a way that inspired me to take up that sport," he recalled.

For du Plessis, one particular moment stood out: Rhodes' legendary run-out against Pakistan at the 1992 World Cup. As a young boy watching the game, the athleticism and energy of Rhodes left an impression that went far beyond statistics.

"That run-out back then, I was a young boy and you're like, 'I want to be that guy,'" du Plessis said.

More than three decades later, the story has come full circle. Rhodes is now part of the Rotterdam Dockers ownership group, which includes Faf as well. What once inspired a young South African to pick up a bat and ball could now inspire a new generation of Dutch and European youngsters.

That, for du Plessis, is one of the most exciting possibilities of the ETPL.

Children do not necessarily fall in love with cricket by studying scorecards. They remember the moments that make them dream, the spectacular catch, the towering six, the fast bowler touching 150 kilometres per hour, or the batter producing a hundred when the pressure is at its highest.

"You don't look at runs and stats and stuff like that as a kid. You look at icons in the way they play the game, what they do, that amazing catch, that big six, that hundred he scores, that guy that bowls 150 and you go, 'That's what I want to do when I grow up,'" he said.

For Rotterdam and the Netherlands, the ambition is not simply to attract existing cricket supporters. It is to introduce new fans to the sport, give children their own heroes and perhaps inspire the next Faf du Plessis, Jonty Rhodes or European cricket star.

Because every great cricketing journey begins with a moment when a child watches a hero and thinks: “I want to be that guy.”