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There was a time not so long ago when Quinton de Kock’s first love was indisputably cricket.
The now 31-year-old confessed to loving: “Test cricket and I love representing my country and all that comes with it. I’ve enjoyed the ups and the downs, the celebrations and even the disappointments…”
He is a fabulous cricketer, a magnificent stroke-maker with a wonderful record in first class and international cricket in all three formats. He is also a brilliant wicketkeeper who has captained his country, South Africa, in all three formats.
In an international career that started in 2012 when he was 20, he has he has represented no fewer than 26 teams across all three formats.
He played 55 Tests, 155 ODI’s, 93 T20I’s and 367 T20’s. His aggregates in these four categories make impressive reading: 3300, 6770, 2584 and 10,510 respectively.
De Kock was the fastest South African to 1,000 ODI runs and he scored the fastest T20I half-century for the Proteas, needing only 15 balls to get there.
As a wicketkeeper, he was the first to reach 150 dismissals and the fastest wicketkeeper, in terms of matches (35), to reach 150 Test dismissals. He also overtook Adam Gilchrist as the fastest wicketkeeper, in terms of matches, to complete 200 dismissals in Tests (47).
All this and more he brought to the table when he joined the Barbados-based franchise in 2022.
In December 2021 after the first Test against India at Centurion in South Africa, he announced his intentions to leave the Test arena. He made 34 and 21 and made good on his promise to retire with immediate effect. He was still only 29.
Not too long thereafter, he announced his retirement from ODI cricket after the 2023 World Cup in India.
Photo: Ashley Allen – CPL T20/CPL T20 via Getty Images
The statement he made at the time does not exactly encourage those who are hopeful that, as the senior pro, he will play a leading role in mentoring the youngsters like wicketkeeper Rivaldo Clarke, opener Kevin Wickham and even older heads like allrounder Nyeem Young.
“I am not going to deny,” he told a reporter, “that there is a lot of money and, coming to the end of your career, guys want to get their final top-up before their career finishes….”
It fits squarely with the tailpiece he had tacked on to an earlier statement made when asked about his love of the game now that he was married with a young daughter.
He has been playing the game all over the world non-stop for the last 12 years and is arguably jaded and tired as a result.
Photo: Randy Brooks/CPL T20 via Getty Images
“My family is everything to me,” he said, unapologetically, “and I want to have the time and space to be able to be with them during this new and exciting chapter of our lives.
“I love Test cricket […] but now I’ve found something that I love even more...”
The Barbados Royals fans and followers do not want to hear it. They are puzzled by the sudden turnaround in the fortunes of the team.
Photo: Randy Brooks/CPL T20 via Getty Images
In the league phase of the tournament, they were the first team to qualify, doing so when they beat the Saint Kitts and Nevis Patriots for the second time in Bridgetown on 16 September.
After that game, with home advantage disappearing, momentum was lost. They won not a single game on the road, losing three on the trot in Providence, one in Tarouba and another, unforgivably, in Bridgetown.
There are those who argue that de Kock has not been pulling his weight as the senior pro. The Royals’ win/loss record this year shows that, as QdK’s batting performances waned, so too did the BR’s fortunes.
Photo: Randy Brooks/CPL T20 via Getty Images
There is no disputing that the quality of the wicketkeeper/batsman’s performances for South Africa in ODIs and T20Is fell off measurably after his retirement from Test cricket.
Hear him on his changing role in the South African team where he was required to switch from a swashbuckling stroke-maker to senior professional. It is a role and responsibility he seems to understand very well.
“Over time, it’s changed,” he said. “Somehow, I try to play a situation that has been put before us. There’s a time for me to be aggressive but there’s also time just being out in the middle and trusting I can just catch up an innings.
Photo: Randy Brooks/CPL T20 via Getty Images
“I’ve learnt another way to score runs and I had to take control of the senior group. Guys like myself and David Miller, we had to lead the group.
“Somehow through that process, my game has got a bit more enhanced than being the guy who just smashes it the whole time.”
This role, I think, is the same role he plays for the BR. But one can hardly argue convincingly that he has been delivering.
Photo: Randy Brooks/CPL T20 via Getty Images
In ten innings this CPL season, the left-hander has so far scored 434 runs, more than any other batsman in the tournament. He has had knocks of 115, the current high score of the tournament, 87 and 59.
In the first six games this season, he averaged 55.25 and the Royals won five. In the last four innings, however, his scores read 2, 22, 35 and 8 for an average of 16.75. The Royals lost all four.
That notwithstanding, they have qualified for the playoffs.
Photo: Ashley Allen – CPL T20/CPL T20 via Getty Images
It is now crunch time in the tournament. The Eliminator and Qualifier slots have duly been filled after Sunday’s final exciting fixture between Guyana Amazon Warriors and Trinidad Knight Riders.
The Royals will play TKR in the Eliminator on Tuesday and GAW will play St Lucia Kings in Qualifier 1 on Wednesday—both games, like all remaining ones, at Providence in Guyana.
Tuesday’s game will determine whether the Royals go home or they get another bite at the cherry in the Qualifier 2. They are up against a TKR, whose confidence was understandably boosted by a very convincing 74-run win over the defending champions in Match 30 on Sunday evening.
Photo: Ashley Allen – CPL T20/CPL T20 via Getty Images
Here is Wired868’s theory of the case as expressed in the published report after Friday’s Match 28:
When Nicholas Pooran does not get off, Trinbago Knight Riders do not get over the line. Sometimes.
When Quinton de Kock does not get off, Barbados Royals do not get over the line. Often.
Photo: Randy Brooks/CPL T20 via Getty Images
So will de Kock dig deep enough to reignite the cricketing fire in his soul? Or will he continue the way he has gone lately, going through the motions, without conviction, without desire, without success?
We shall have our answer at the end of Tuesday evening…
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Warren Thompson is a Tobagonian by birth, a life-long student of cricket by preference and an economist by profession. His formal training came at QRC, The UWI and the University of Wales but the assets/skills of which this father of three girls is proudest come from the School of Hard Knocks.
