The South African team has thrown their weight behind stand-in captain Faf du Plessis who has been accused by the ICC of ball tampering. The team considers these allegations to be a joke, and believe that du Plessis has done nothing wrong whatsoever.
Hashim Amla, who normally is a very unassuming character took the lead while addressing the media and made it clear that all the allegations made absolutely no sense to the team.
"Good afternoon everybody. As you can see we have the full team here behind us," Amla began his address to the media at the Melbourne Cricket Ground even as the entire team stood behind him.
"The reason everybody is here is to stand together and to show solidarity to what has been something we actually thought was a joke," Amla said.
"It's not April. But the allegations against Faf were really, for us, a ridiculous thing and as a team we are standing strong. For us it is basically a joke. The boys are here, standing strong," he further added.
Faf who has led the side to a historic series win against Australia has been handed a level 2 offence by the ICC after they reviewed a video footage. The governing body believed that the skipper 'changed the condition of the ball' and breached Law 42.3. Du Plessis has pleaded not guilty to the offence.
Amla believed that the entire episode was being twisted for no reason and that it is all a non-issue.
"I chew bubblegum while I am fielding. Do you want me to brush my teeth after lunch every time I come out?" he said.
"You've got to be logical about this, common sense surely should prevail. If I've got something in my mouth, guys are handing out red froggies at lunch time to give the kids, keep them hydrated, energise them and we are in the field for two hours. We eat nuts, biltong, that sort of thing. There was no malicious intent," Amla added.
The former skipper reiterated the fact that the entire team was convinced that their captain was innocent.
"I am just trying to clear what we think is an absolutely wrongful allegation made on our captain. We are standing in solidarity to our captain who has done absolutely nothing wrong. It's pretty clear what we are trying to do you here. As I said, we've done nothing wrong. If there was any doubt whatsoever, you wouldn't have the full team here. We've just basically done nothing wrong," Amla said.
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