Ken Borland

Quinton de Kock said on Thursday that he comes from a mixed-race family and has always believed Black lives matter, and he will now be taking a knee along with the rest of the Proteas team in the remainder of their T20 World Cup campaign in the United Arab Emirates.

De Kock’s turnaround came after he issued a statement strongly denying any racist intent in his refusal to take a knee before this week’s match against the West Indies, as directed by the CSA Board, and his subsequent withdrawal from the game. The wicketkeeper/batsman said he was deeply hurt by people calling him a racist.

The chairman of the CSA Board, Lawson Naidoo, and two other directors also met virtually with the Proteas on Wednesday night to engage with the players and clarify why they wanted a unified stance on Black Lives Matter from the squad and management. According to a CSA statement, De Kock then agreed to follow the directive and issued an apology for his actions on Thursday morning.

“For those who don’t know, I come from a mixed-race family. My half-sisters are Coloured and my step-mom is Black,” De Kock revealed in his statement. “For me, Black lives have mattered since I was born. Not just because there was an international movement.

“I was raised to understand that we all have rights, and they are important. I felt like my rights were taken away when I was told what we had to do in the way that we were told.

“We were previously told we had the choice to do what we felt we wanted to do. … I didn’t understand why I had to prove it with a gesture, when I live and learn and love people from all walks of life every day.

“When you are told what to do, with no discussion, I felt like it takes away the meaning. If I was racist, I could easily have taken the knee and lied, which is wrong and doesn’t build a better society,” De Kock said. 

The key batsman is therefore available for South Africa’s match against Sri Lanka on Saturday and the whole BLM saga, that has rumbled on for over a year, is hopefully now over.

De Kock’s initial defiance is also, however, a warning to the new CSA Board that reactionary leadership and issuing edicts from upon high without properly consulting the players is only going to cause further divisions.

Even CSA’s apology for the timing of its directive – on the morning of a key match – is mealy-mouthed, merely saying that they “regret … that the timing … may have been unsettling for the players”.

The one man who is emerging from this week’s crisis with credit, however, is Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma, who De Kock praised in his statement when he said “he is a flipping amazing leader”.

The players union gets involved in Proteas matters when the team as a whole is affected by an issue and that’s exactly why the South African Cricketers’ Association have been offering their support to the squad over the last 24 hours in the wake of the Quinton de Kock ‘taking a knee’ controversy, CEO Andrew Breetzke said on Wednesday.

De Kock withdrew from the Proteas’ T20 World Cup match against the West Indies a couple of hours before the start after Cricket South Africa issued a directive on the morning of the game instructing all players to take a knee in support of Black Livers Matter.

While CSA are awaiting a report from team management before deciding on what action to take, and De Kock spent Wednesday with agent Dave Rundle crafting a statement to explain his actions, SACA have been actively involved in protecting the interests of the team as a whole.

“It’s a complex and complicated scenario and our focus has been on supporting the team over the last 24 hours,” Breetzke told The Citizen on Wednesday. “But we’ve engaged with Quinton a lot too.

“The timing of CSA’s directive has been destructive to the team environment at the World Cup. While SACA would have preferred a unified team stance on taking the knee, the players’ stance has not changed in 12 months.

“So this directive by the CSA Board should have been made before the World Cup and not during the tournament. The timing of the directive is the problem for the players. We always seem to have issues at world cups,” Breetzke said.

Although the players have not been able to come up with a unified response to supporting BLM, Breetzke said “This current Proteas team has had more culture camps and discussions about diversity under Temba Bavuma than any other Proteas side.”

While the cricketing world eagerly awaits De Kock’s explanation for the stance he took, the fallout has continued with unconfirmed reports from India saying his IPL franchise, the Mumbai Indians, will not be re-engaging his services at the next auction. But after a fairly average last season for them, they might have been looking to move on anyway from a big earner with a reported $500 000 contract.

The Big Bash League in Australia has, however, already put out the welcome mat for De Kock should he no longer be playing for the Proteas this summer.

“We encourage our players to think about the issues and express their views as they see appropriate,” Cricket Victoria CEO Nick Cummins told The Daily Telegraph in Australia.

“We would certainly be interested in a player of his calibre to come to the BBL. It would be great for the competition.”

Kagiso Rabada endured a 39-month break between five-wicket hauls before taking five for 34 on Saturday to wrap up an innings win for the Proteas in the first Test against the West Indies, but the fast bowler said even though he was relieved to end that dry spell, the failure to notch the statistical landmark was not frustrating for him.

“Cricket is a game where you’re measured by the highest accolades like scoring hundreds or taking five and 10-fors, so you always strive to do that, but it’s not like you’re looking for that or desperate for it because sometimes you can bowl really well and not get any wickets. It’s an old cliché but they do tend to repeat themselves.

“Unfortunately I haven’t been able to do the five-for thing for the last couple of years but I knew I just had to be consistent in my preparation. But I am quite relieved to get it, it’s like scoring a hundred, who wouldn’t be happy? I was really glad with my performance, but without the support of my team-mates this wouldn’t have happened.

“With Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje bowling exceptionally well and the batsmen coming to the party and putting runs on the board, this makes it easier for me. I just try and control what I can control and the cricketing gods were smiling at me today,” Rabada said after his 10^th five-wicket haul in just 46 Tests.

He is the seventh South African to join that club and he said the Proteas, by returning to basics and playing as a team, were ruthless as they battered the West Indies into submission.

“This game can be unforgiving but we have just tried to be consistent in our preparation and we’ve established how we want to play. And we stick to that. And if you do that then luck tends to be on your side more often than not. In previous games we were probably lacking in important periods, we let the game slip away. We would be good in patches and at other times quite sloppy.

“We’ve identified the moments in the past when we slackened off and in this Test we kept our foot on the throttle. We are a young team, we are rebuilding, and we will take a lot of confidence from this performance. We must keep building on what we have established in this Test and we will stick to our processes and not take anything for granted,” Rabada said.

Kagiso Rabada finally enjoyed his day in the sun as he spearheaded South Africa’s efforts to wrap up the first Test against the West Indies on the third day at St Lucia on Saturday, taking five for 34 as the Proteas won by an innings and 63 runs.

Rabada bowled superbly without much luck in the first innings, Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje taking the honours as the West Indies were bundled out for just 97, their lowest ever score against South Africa. But in the second innings the 26-year-old gained reward for his skill, fire and accuracy, as he claimed his first five-wicket haul since taking 11 wickets in the epic win over Australia in Port Elizabeth in March 2018.

Rabada began what became the final day with figures of two for 18 in 10 overs, with the West Indies on 82 for four and still 143 behind. And he made the first breakthrough with a clever piece of cricket as a surprise full ball saw Jermain Blackwood driving straight to a well-placed short extra cover, Rassie van der Dusen taking a good low catch. That ended a partnership of 46 with Roston Chase.

He then returned shortly before the scheduled lunch break to dismiss Rahkeem Cornwall, also caught on the drive, for a duck and then, with the break delayed due to eight wickets being down, he bowled the stubborn Joshua de Silva (9), who shouldered arms to an inswinger and lost his off stump.

Left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj, who bowled just four overs in the first innings, chipped in with two wickets, bowling both Jason Holder (4) and Chase for a determined 62.

The hosts sit with a massive problem when it comes to their batting because Chase was their only batsman to sore more than 20 in the match. Holder top-scored in the dismal first-innings with 20.

Nortje claimed three wickets, including the last to fall –  Jayden Seales caught by the safe hands of Wiaan Mulder in the slips – to finish with seven in the match and he was very much the enforcer in a South African attack that looked most accomplished and not out of place with some of the best bowling line-ups in the world.

This is only the second time South Africa have beaten the West Indies by an innings in the Caribbean, the previous occasion coming in 2005 when they beat them by an innings and 86 runs in Bridgetown, the capital city of Barbados. The Proteas have beaten the West Indies by an innings on three occasions at home.