Published: Mar 02, 2015, 12:33 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 03, 2015, 10:56 AM (IST)
South African pacers Dale Steyn chose to stay away from the official pre-match press conference on Monday, ahead of their Pool B match against Ireland on Tuesday in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. The reason for Steyn giving the conference a miss is because of the concerning situation back in South Africa near his home Stonehurst.
Early on Monday, Steyn joined team-mate Faf du Plessis on Twitter, tweeting about a massive fire that broke out behind their house in Stonehurst, Cape Town. Steyn raised concerned about the animals in the mountains and tweeted:
Massive fire behind my house in Stonehurst! Plz be safe and watch out for the mountain animals trying to escape it, porcupines, tortoises…
— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) March 1, 2015
These little animals will also need ur help! Hope the homes don’t get hit! pic.twitter.com/het4JQIZJ9
— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) March 1, 2015
Team-mate du Plessis, who stays in Stonehurst, was equally concerned about the fire and tweeted:
Crazy mountain fire near my new house.hope they can stop the fire before it does more damage.@DaleSteyn62 pic.twitter.com/823s5er21t
— Faf Du Plessis (@faf1307) March 1, 2015
With Steyn missing out the conference, Farhaan Behardien was sent by the South African team management for the pre-match interview. Behardien insisted that this issue won’t weigh on the players mind, “I don’t think so, no. They’ve got people looking after that back in Cape Town, their agents, their people that’s close to them. It’s uncontrollable. It’s something that they didn’t plan or foresee. It’s just one of those things.”
He insisted that the World Cup is important and that the South African team management will extend support in any kind to Steyn and du Plessis in these times, “World Cup is quite important. It’s actually very important. Of course it does affect you in some sort of way, but we have quite a strong support structure around us, the people and the friends and the family that’s here. If there’s any opportunity to help them out or to be a comfort shoulder or whatever, we’ll do so, but I don’t foresee it being a problem at all.”
Steyn is set to play in his 100th One-Day Internationals (ODI) on Tuesday. South Africa is second in the points table in Pool B as they face an in-form Irish team in Manuka Oval, Australia on Tuesday.
