Faf du Plessis was surprised by the ICC’s decision not to take action against Virat Kohli and Steve Smith after the Bengaluru Test.

During the second Test between India and Australia, Kohli had accused Smith of looking to the dressing room for assistance in making a DRS referral about his lbw call. 

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Du Plessis felt that both actions, the accusation by Kohli and Smith’s action to seek confirmation from his team, were greater violations of the ICC code of conduct than his ball-tampering incident which took place in November against Australia.

‘I was [surprised that no one was charged] purely from the reason of what I went through for something I feel was a lot smaller and a lot less… whatever you want to call it. So yes, surprised with that,’ Du Plessis said.

‘It [the reaction from the ICC] was different. I am surprised by the way it happened. Maybe it’s just because I speak from a personal point of view and I felt that I was treated very harshly, but when you see something like that you hope that it would be exactly the same.’

The Proteas captain refrained from being drawn into more questions about the Smith-Kohli incident, but he did, however, feel that their clashes against New Zealand are different, simply by the way the matches are covered by the media.

‘Us and New Zealand are very similar in the way we play,’ said Du Plessis.

‘We respect each other on and off the field and we play a similar brand of cricket. We don’t see that the way you carry on off the field will have an effect on the outcome. When you play a team like India and Australia that can happen and it’s easy to see how that can blow up. For me it has been good to be on the other side for a bit and to see how things unfold. It would have been interesting to see how the Australian media would have reacted to me doing that.’

VIDEO: ESPN