Cape Town – Wiki answers.com says 21-year-old males “are heavy drinkers, and hard core party people, getting back to their places and just crashing, and missing work every few days for hangovers”.
Surely then it is a good thing that South African cricket’s rookie sensation Quinton de Kock is still 27 days shy of his 21st birthday. Or should Proteas coach Russell Domingo expect his young talent to go AWOL soon?
“(Laughs) No ways hey ... that’s not me,” De Kock told the Cape Times. “I am not that guy hey. I’m not a guy for a big night out on the town, like clubbing and that sort of thing. I prefer the bush, where it’s peaceful and I can just spend time with my mates. I also enjoy my fishing.”
De Kock definitely wins some brownie points with Domingo, whom the 20-year-old describes as a “serious fisherman”, but talking about bait and the “catch of the day” after a day’s play is certainly not what is keeping the youngster in the national team.
Identified as a prodigious talent from a young age already – he was winning senior club finals for Old Eds in Johannesburg while still a schoolboy at King Edward – De Kock is following the path that was set out for him years ago.
He admits that “I don’t know what I would be doing if I wasn’t a professional cricketer”, and it is not hard to understand the reasoning behind the statement.
His technique is not faultless – both in his batting style and wicket-keeping – and neither does it have the same coolness on the eye like other teen prodigies before him such as Daryll Cullinan and Herschelle Gibbs.
However, there is the same work ethic, hunger to succeed, and the fearlessness to back his ability. And ability he has in abundance, with that flat-batted drive in Wednesday’s T20 international against Pakistan at the Wanderers testament to it.
De Kock had already pulled Junaid Khan on the front foot to the square-leg fence in dismissive fashion, and lashed the left-arm quick to the point boundary in the same over.
Junaid, wary of the advancing De Kock, delivered a slower-ball full toss wide of the left-hander. Lesser players would have let it go through to the wicket-keeper for a harmless dot ball, but not De Kock, who lunged full stretch to smash it straight past the bowler to dissect mid-off and mid-on for the third boundary in the over. It was a little moment of brilliance.
Batting at the Bullring comes naturally to De Kock, with his record for the Highveld Lions at his home ground equally impressive due to the true bounce and pace of Chris Scott’s surface.
Prior to the Pakistan series in the United Arab Emirates though, De Kock’s limitations against quality spin bowling on slow turning surfaces was exposed in Sri Lanka and at the Indian Premier League. The “wunderkind” had been found out and his technique was being picked apart by the likes of Sachithra Senanayake.
“I had never faced spin bowling like I did in Sri Lanka,” De Kock said.
“It was an eye-opener. I had always thought I could play spin, but that was in a different league.
“I had to work on that part of my game if I wanted to play more international cricket. I came back to South Africa and called Geoff (Toyana, the Lions coach) to throw some balls at me. I was at the Wanderers for five hours a day. We didn’t work on any major technical changes, but mostly on my mind and gameplans against spin.”
The lessons learnt from the mini boot camp with Toyana were certainly evident in the UAE. His foot movement was positive, the hands were hitting through rather than at the ball, and all this came to the fore during his series-winning maiden one-day century in the fourth ODI in Abu Dhabi.
It filtered through to De Kock’s wicket-keeping too, with the quality of his glovework having improved steadily. However, there was something else that was different about the young man, and it had nothing to do with his bat swing.
“I enjoyed that innings because I could contribute to the team winning,” he said.
“I always seemed to be in a hurry when I was playing for the Proteas, and I think I am giving myself a bit more time to assess the conditions to get myself in.
“I think that’s been the major change in my batting, in that I am allowing myself more time at the crease. I am naturally aggressive so I should catch up.”
Wiki answers.com may not have been entirely accurate in their assessment of all 21-year-old males, although they also said “he should be very good at what he does”.
That part they certainly got right about a young man who is certainly on his way up.
Did you know?
*De Kock was hit flush on the head after failing to catch a high ball, only for his teammate to hold on to the chance after it ricocheted off his head.
*Besides the obvious nickname of “Quinny”, De Kock is also known as “Cheslyn” to his Proteas teammates.
*He drives a Honda CRV, but if he walked into a showroom tomorrow he would purchase a Jeep Cherokee. “Now that’s a car,” enthused De Kock.
*Is the latest international sportsman from King Edward VII School (KES), joining the likes of Proteas Test captain Graeme Smith and Springbok wing Bryan Habana on the school’s honours board.
Cape Times