TELFORD VICE
Does Quinton de Kock consult the silkily skilled Thami Tsolekile on the finer points of glovemanship? Does Tsolekile ask De Kock how to muscle perfectly decent deliveries over midwicket for six?
“I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case,” Geoff Toyana chortled this week. “They work together on most days. At the end of our training sessions, they always throw balls to each other.”
Asked the same question, Tsolekile opted for the philosophical rather than the practical: “I believe that younger guys can help older guys just like older guys can help younger guys.”
De Kock answered with a dead bat, at least from one side of the equation: “Not really. We are different types of batsmen - he’s a nudger and I’m a finisher. Our gameplans are different.”
That is not the only contrast between them. Tsolekile is 33. De Kock is 21. For reasons rooted on and off the field, Tsolekile has been given little of the chance he has earned to play at international level. De Kock is that shimmering thing: the future.
As the Lions coach, Toyana has a ringside seat to what might have been a battle between two players trapped in circumstances that are never in their control but always in their faces.
“I’m not sure whether it’s fortunate or unfortunate, but I’ve got them both in my dressingroom,” Toyana said.
“But there are no issues between them.”
Tsolekile described his relationship with De Kock in one word: “Quality.”
“It’s healthy when you have two ’keepers in a side - it’s my responsibility to keep Quinton on his toes,’ Tsolekile said.
“We’re good mates,” De Kock said. “We get along as normal people do. Off the field, we spend time together and we’re always the same with each other.”
Did the bigger picture sometimes get in the way of their friendship?
“I don’t hold grudges or get competitive in that way,” De Kock said.
Tsolekile acknowledged that De Kock had “done well, and his keeping has improved in the past year or two”.
“During the Indian series (when De Kock scored centuries in all three one-day internationals), Thami was one of the first guys to congratulate me,” De Kock said.
To Toyana falls the complicated job of ensuring that trouble does not seep into what sounds like paradise. Part of his plan is to rotate the ’keeping duties between the two.
“I have a born gloveman in Thami and ‘Quinnie’ is the best fielder in my team,” was how Toyana explained his win-win situation.
Another dimension was added to the story on January 12, when Tsolekile was hastily appointed Lions captain after Alviro Petersen resigned hours before a T20 game against the Knights in Bloemfontein.
“Thami taking on the captaincy has been a revelation,” Toyana said. “It hasn’t shown in our results yet, but the boys are taking well to his way of thinking.”
But, even though Tsolekile’s stock would appear to be on the rise, Toyana knew where all this was headed: “I have to develop ‘Quinnie’s keeping - that’s a big thing for SA cricket. He has improved a lot in the past six or seven months.”
Of course, the destination is nothing without the journey. “Thami has been very helpful to ‘Quinnie’ over the years,” Toyana said. “For instance, Thami was happy to sit out (in the franchise one-day competition last season) because ‘Quinnie’ was doing a great job.”
In the next few days, when the test squad to play Australia next month is due to be announced, Tsolekile or De Kock could have another reason to offer the other congratulations. At least one of their names should feature, if only as cover for AB de Villiers and his surgically repaired hand.
“If the selectors decide on ‘Quinnie’ I don’t know how Thami would take that,” Toyana said, his voice snaring on emotion.
Should Tsolekile retain his understudy role, the earth will not move. Should both be named - De Kock as a batsman - the hugs will be mutual. But should De Kock crack the nod ahead of Tsolekile, the moment when past and present give way to future will have come.
More importantly, a friendship will be tested.
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