"There's too much negative stuff that has happened over the last four, five weeks. Our cricket is too strong to have so many issues all the time," Du Plessis said. © Getty

Faf du Plessis has endorsed South Africa's new power structure, which was installed less than three weeks before he is due to lead his team in a men's Test series against England. And he is mindful that not much time remains to stop the rot that has afflicted the wider game from leaping the boundary.

Cricket South Africa named Jacques Faul in an acting capacity on Saturday to replace suspended chief executive Thabang Moroe, and they hope to confirm Graeme Smith as their director of cricket on Wednesday.

But the board have stubbornly refused to take the blame for the crises that have befallen the game under their watch, including a slew of questionable governance practices and an estimated loss of USD 68.3 million by the end of the 2022 rights cycle.

Amid all that uncertainty, at least Du Plessis's continued captaincy would seem assured, even though South Africa do not currently have a selection panel and are strewn with interim appointments. So it will come as good news that he approves of the new deal: "Jacques [Faul, currently the Titans franchise's chief executive] is obviously a very experienced CEO, a doctor [of sport business studies], so I am sure he is pretty clever. But it's about experience; getting people in that can take this great game of ours on the right track again.

"There's too much negative stuff that has happened over the last four, five weeks. Our cricket is too strong to have so many issues all the time. We are too proud a cricketing nation to be talking about this stuff all the time. The attention needs to be on the cricket and making sure we will build ourselves as a team and ourselves as an organisation to be great again."

Du Plessis could hear the clock ticking towards his team's four-match rubber against Joe Root's side, which starts in Centurion on December 26: "There's not much time before the English series, so now it's about putting our focus back on to the team and making sure that the Test team gets all the things that are required for them, or for us to be successful. It's been a little bit paused for the last two or three weeks, which is already too late. So we need to make sure in the next week that things start unfolding to make sure the Test team gets the most attention over the next week. The last two weeks there hasn't been much attention on that so that is what we will try and drive over the next week."

Du Plessis made his debut under Smith's captaincy, played in the latter's last 14 Tests, and would doubtless welcome his appointment. But he was also determined to keep his gaze on matters on the field: "I am a firm believer that it's time for us to look ahead from all this crap [sic] that's been happening behind the scenes. It's about making sure that the players are focused on to what is the cricket side of things. The players have got absolutely nothing to do with what's happening behind the scenes.

"For me its important to separate that from a player's point of view, and if it needs me to be dealing with some of these things then that's OK. It's about getting focus on what's really important now, which is a a Test series against England. As I said before, it's already a little bit 99 [11th hour] and things haven't happened as they should have. But now we can start getting things on the right track."

Du Plessis spoke after leading the Paarl Rocks to a tense 12-run win over the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants in a Mzansi Super League fixture that confirmed the Rocks' place in the December 16 final, which they will play at home.

The tournament, which has been of a high standard and has delivered close finishes more often than not, is among few positives in the game currently. But, as Du Plessis said, soon the spotlight will be back on the real world of international cricket. England are coming, ready or not.