[imagesource: YouTube / Proteas Cricket]

Yesterday, former Proteas skipper Faf du Plessis announced his retirement from test cricket.

Ideally, Faf would have bowed out with a home series against Australia, but that’s been scrapped in the most dubious of circumstances.

Having scored a gutsy century on debut back in 2012, facing 376 balls and saving the test match in Adelaide, it’s a pity that his test career ended this way, and his retirement makes that recent 199 against Sri Lanka all the more frustrating.

Still, he can look back fondly on his 69 tests, and he’s still available for both the ODI and T20 national teams.

We shouldn’t forget another valuable contribution Faf made to the game – ‘the Beast’. After being struck in the nether regions far too often for his liking, Faf decided to adapt the traditional “abdominal protector”, or ball box, with some added layers of protection.

He detailed that in this video from 2014:

I’ll assume his teammates have taken that advice on board, and the Beast lives on.

It only seems fair that after watching him in pain above, we finish with Faf revisiting that iconic debut ton, batting in partnership with his mate from his school days, AB de Villiers: