Ask a 10-year-old cricketer if playing the game is fun and the answer would be an incandescent, incredulous, "Yes!" Put the same question to the same cricketer 20 or so years later and, while still positive, the answer may have lost its exclamation mark and some of its sparkle.

Repeat the exercise five years after that and the reply could be a pause and a string of qualifying ifs and buts. Five more years later, and nobody would ask. Because the cricketer would be 40 and - if they haven't made a pile of money big enough to rest on for the remainder of their days - daunted by the looming prospect of trying to find a proper job.

Choose to do something and stick with it for long enough to become proficient, and invariably it will be fun. Be paid to do it, and it becomes work. Do it for long enough to be too old to learn to do anything else to earn a living, and it is the thing that defines you.

Rassie van der Dussen is nearing the end of his 37th year. He played his first match as a professional for Fleetwood against Lancaster in the ECB's Northern Premier League in May 2009. He has been in the paid ranks for 16 years and seven months.

Is playing cricket still fun for him?

"The SA20 is really fun to be part of; it's really well organised," Van der Dussen said on Monday at Newlands, where the fourth edition of the tournament will start on Friday with a game between Mumbai Indians Cape Town and Durban's Super Giants.

"The management we have at MI is unbelievable. Not a stone is left unturned. It's such a professional environment.

"The other day at our first training session, within 10 minutes I had the drinks I like to have during training. I didn't have to ask for them. All the small things are taken care of.

"I suppose that's where the game needs to go. It needs to be really professional and it needs to be closely monitored. The work these guys put in behind the scenes is unbelievable. As a player, it's so good to not have to worry about certain things.

"So you can focus solely on what you're here to do. Yes, we are paid handsomely. But we're here to do a job. We're not here on a month-long holiday. It's refreshing to be able to concentrate on doing that job with no outside noise, no chat about this or that."

Time to come clean. Van der Dussen was in fact asked whether playing franchise cricket was more fun than being part of the international arena. But, clever fellow that he is, he nudged his answer in a different direction.

Because, from the outside, playing international cricket doesn't look like fun. It looks like unfairness. Why should you have to entertain the myth that you represent a nation just because a country's name is on your playing shirt? Why should you have to put up with pressure from the public, the politicians and the press? Why should you have to endure online abuse from people who will never play cricket as well as you do?

If you knew all this at the age of 10, why would you have continued to play?

Faf du Plessis is 41. His first properly professional match was a list A game for Northerns against Border in East London in February 2004. That was 21 years and 10 months ago. He made his debut for South Africa in an ODI against India at Newlands six years and 11 months later. His last international was a Test against Pakistan in Rawalpindi in February 2021. He has also played for 27 franchise, provincial and county teams - 15 more than Van der Dussen.

Few are better placed to answer the question: which is more fun, playing international or franchise cricket?

"They're fun differently," Du Plessis said. "When you're playing for South Africa it is the best thing you can do. When I was asked back then to go and play in the leagues, my answer was no. Because I wanted to play for South Africa in all formats.

"I still see playing for South Africa as the biggest stage. Is it always fun? No, but that's sport; sport's not always fun. You get ups and downs. Even in the franchise world, it's not always fun. You go to places where you don't necessarily want to spend six, seven, eight weeks. Whereas when you're playing for South Africa you're with friends and you're representing your country.

"Where I am now, you look at your year and you can, I suppose, selfishly choose what you want to do. But that comes with time. When I was 21 I didn't have that opportunity. You go play county cricket or club cricket in England and live in the scoreboard for six months. That wasn't fun either."

Du Plessis was speaking at the SA20 "captains' day" press conference at a Cape Town hotel on Tuesday. To his far right sat a bright-eyed Tristan Stubbs, who is more than 16 years his junior. Between Stubbs and Du Plessis were seated Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, league commissioner Graeme Smith and Kagiso Rabada - who isn't captaining Cape Town, but was place-holding for Rashid Khan as he makes his way from the ILT20. Aiden Markram was to Du Plessis' left.

They were all 10 once. They will all be 44 - Smith's age - if their gods spare them. All, of course, played for South Africa. Which brings us back to Du Plessis' point about international cricket remaining the pinnacle for players.

"Certainly, these guys would tell you they wouldn't want it any other way," he said. "Isn't that right, Aiden?"

"Yeah, that's right," Markram agreed with a nod.

Asked how performances at the SA20 might influence selection for next year's T20 World Cup, Markram - South Africa's captain in the format - said: "For the players who are maybe vying for a place in the squad it's important not to think about that World Cup at all. Absorb this month for what it is and have as much fun as you can.

"Naturally, when you step onto the field, the competitive edge will come through. So let that be and then, off the field, have such a good time and create some good memories with some really cool teams and good players. And we'll take the World Cup on when we get there."

If only it was that simple. Like it was when we were 10.