“We want to be able to throw first punches. In the past we’ve let other teams throw first punches, instead of us. That’s where we want to get better.” - Quinton de Kock
TELFORD VICE | Cape Town
PLAYERS of Quinton de Kock’s calibre are seldom saddled with nightwatchman’s duties. More often others are enlisted in that role to protect valuable assets like De Kock. But a nightwatchman of sorts he will be this summer.
De Kock was appointed South Africa’s Test captain on December 11 despite CSA director of cricket Graeme Smith saying in April that that would not happen. De Kock himself said, in July, that he didn’t want the job, not least because he is also the white-ball captain and a major batter and the wicketkeeper in all formats.
What changed between July and December 11? “The guys phoned me,” De Kock told an online press conference on Monday. “When they told me the situation we’re in, I understood where they were coming from. I didn’t accept it immediately. I did think about it.”
CSA has had since February 17, when Faf du Plessis announced he had resigned the Test captaincy, to think about it. It has, of course, also had a lot more to think about. Considering CSA’s chronis inability to think and act sensibly, it is no surprise that the vacancy stayed unfilled for five months.
It has still not been permanently filled. A key factor in De Kock agreeing to add the Test captaincy to his already heavy workload was that the appointment is limited to the 2020/21 season. De Kock is thus charged with maintaining a riff on the nightwatchman theme: keep things neat and tidy until South Africa’s next Test captain grabs the ring.
“It’s not a long-term thing,” De Kock said. “It’s just [until] we get someone who really puts up their hand as the leader of the Test team, and they will take over. The guys are looking for a long-term leader. I won’t be doing that. It does seem as if I have a lot on my plate but I’m happy to do it for now, until things happen.”
The first of those things starts at Centurion on Saturday, when the two-match series against Sri Lanka begins. Before February last year Sri Lanka were invariably on a hiding to nothing in Tests in South Africa, who won all five series the teams contested there from 1998 to 2016. The visitors flipped that narrative last February when they played some of the most compelling cricket yet seen by any team anywhere to win by one wicket at Kingsmead and by eight wickets at St George’s Park. That made Sri Lanka the first Asian side to claim a Test series in South Africa.
De Kock, along with Du Plessis, Temba Bavuma, Dean Elgar, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram and Wiaan Mulder are, Covid permitting, South Africa’s survivors from the squad that felt that pain. “One or two of us do have that memory, and we’re here to rectify things,” De Kock said. “They came here and they hurt us on our own grounds. We want to win the series convincingly.”
A difference this time will be that the matches will be played on fast Highveld pitches. Would the South Africans have a word with groundstaff to ensure their pace attack — perennially their strength — has the advantage? “The wickets speak for themselves at the Wanderers and Centurion,” De Kock said. “We know there’s pace and bounce, and it does get up and down as the Test goes on. I don’t think we have to do any talking to the groundsmen. They should know what to prepare. They’re going to be good wickets. It’s just the nature of Centurion and the Wanderers. That’s what we expect.”
What will South Africans see from their team under De Kock? “We want to play clever Test cricket. We want to be streetwise in the way we go about things. We want to be able to throw first punches. In the past we’ve let other teams throw first punches, instead of us. That’s where we want to get better.”
Not that cricket is all the rubber will be about. In the wake of England going home on December 10, in the middle of their white-ball series in South Africa, because of repeated positive tests for Covid-19 within the squads’ apparently bio-secure environment, the focus is sharply on CSA’s ability to run the game competently in cricket’s new normal.
“We do have protocols, and from day one everyone has been adhering to them,” De Kock said. “We have that responsibility but it’s nothing that we can’t handle. It’s a small thing we can do to help out to ensure tours during bubble life and Covid times. We do what we can to make sure our bubble is safe.”
The squads have been in the bubble since Saturday. Should they be given a clean bill of health after Tuesday’s round of tests, cricket itself could come to the fore. “We were given the protocols a week in advance, so we knew what we were going into,” De Kock said. “We arrived, did a Covid test and then quarantined until the results came out. There’s been social distancing — we go get dinner and then go back to our rooms. Training’s done in staggered sessions in groups.
“It has been a little bit difficult these two or three days, but once we do our next Covid test and we all test negative, I’m sure it will all go back to normal. It’s a matter of waiting it out, making sure we do everything right, and then getting back to normal things within the bubble.”
Things will not be that simple. CSA released a curiously timed statement on Friday in which its interim board highlighted South Africa’s refusal to take a knee, the universally recognised gesture of solidarity with Black Lives Matter (BLM), before matches in their T20I series against England last month. The release was apparently prompted by the team’s statement on November 25 in which they said they would not kneel but failed to explain why not. Instead they said they were “exploring the significance of taking the knee and a raised fist”.
Friday’s release said board chair Zak Yacoob had “expressed concern about the implications of this statement. The interim board believes that the subsequent public and media criticism has justified these concerns.”
The release said Yacoob had written to Smith and Mark Boucher, South Africa’s coach, on November 25 to say that “while the interim board respected the constitutional right of individuals to freedom of expression as guaranteed by the constitution, the interim board felt that ‘we should embrace every aspect of our constitution’ fully as South Africans and show ‘the world that all of us are together in opposing racism at every turn’.”
The interim board had “reaffirmed the significance of the current worldwide movement against systemic racism in sport, noting that it was not a sectarian political cause but a broad social justice campaign garnering wide support from athletes all over the world, bringing together a coalition of support across national, racial, class, religious and generational lines. The interim board feels black lives matter [sic] has a particular meaning given South Africa’s apartheid past. Therefore, the interim board has confirmed CSA’s support for BLM - first expressed on July 9 in the aftermath of the letter sent to CSA by 36 [black and brown] former national players and senior coaches.”
Nineteen of the 24 players in South Africa’s squad for the T20Is against England played in the 3TC game at Centurion on July 9, when all involved took a knee. So why are they opposed to doing so when they wear the colours of a team representing a country where racism was legislated as law and remains a faultline of inequality?
“Judge Yacoob explained that while the interim board could not compel the national team to act, it would encourage the Proteas to continue with their stated intention of engaging with this issue,” Friday’s release said. “He said it was in the national interest that our sports representatives reflected the constitutional imperatives for South Africans to address lingering discrimination, indignities and exclusions.”
If that made it seem as if the board is on the side of the angels in the fight for racial justice — and that by implication the team could be seen to have chosen the other side — the last sentence of Friday’s release muddied the matter.
“Finally, the chairperson noted that while the interim board would remain engaged with this issue, it had also applied its mind to the SJN [Social Justice and Nation-building] initiative and subsequently placed it on hold, pending further consideration which includes obtaining legal opinion from legal counsel.”
The SJN is the brainchild of Eugenia Kula-Ameyaw, whose resignation along with the rest of the board in October will go unlamented. But, despite her questionable behaviour as a director, Kula-Ameyaw did start something worthwhile in the shape of the SJN. For the interim board to point fingers at the team over its position on BLM with one hand and be seen to use the other hand to, without explanation, inhibit CSA’s existing efforts to have an honest conversation about race makes little obvious sense.
The time for South Africa to take a knee is gone. If they do so on Saturday, they will be condemned as performative sellouts. If they don’t, they should know that South Africans — including the interim board — will demand to know what they are doing, not simply saying, to work towards a more just society.
De Kock is a fine player and he might yet prove himself a good captain. But he should know, if he doesn’t already, that the cricket is the least of his worries.
First published by Cricbuzz.
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