In the excellent documentary, ‘The Last Dance’ about the 1997/98 Chicago Bulls team’s run to the NBA title, Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman and the Bulls head coach at the time Phil Jackson recount the story of Rodman wanting a 48-hour break in the middle of the season so that he could party in Las Vegas.
Rodman’s a unique sportsman. ‘Colourful’ doesn’t even begin to describe a career, that featured Madonna, Carmen Electra, pro wrestling and putting on a wedding dress, hopping on a horse drawn carriage to drag him down 5th Avenue in New York, to promote his autobiography. He was also a vital member of five NBA championship winning teams.
In the middle of that 97/98 season he needed a break. Jackson and Jordan knew that and so despite Rodman requesting that break at a crucial stage in the season, they granted it to him because they knew that when it mattered later in the season, Rodman would be at his best.
What does all that have to do with Quinton de Kock? In a sense De Kock has similar tendencies to Rodman. He’s a genius at what he does on the field, but off it, he can be somewhat of a ‘loskop.’ But he needs to be given the room to be that.
De Kock’s not going to be taking time off in Vegas - or whatever the South African equivalent would be - but if he hops on a boat with some rods, then don’t expect to hear from him for the rest of the day. If it’s an extended camping trip with a lot of fishing thrown in - then it’ll be a few days.
When De Kock switches off - he switches off properly. “I’ve had one of the world’s best lockdowns,” he told Crystal Arnold and Mpumelelo Mbangwa who hosted Cricket SA’s Awards on-line last weekend. Yes, that makes him sound oblivious to the world around him, but it’s the way De Kock is about everything that he isn’t involved in at the very moment.
I first interviewed De Kock back in 2012 for a sports magazine. A month shy of his 20th birthday and a few weeks before he made his international debut, he told me: “Personally, I don’t like talking about cricket. I hate talking about cricket. I don’t know, I’d rather talk about the dumbest things you can think of. Anything but cricket.”
As it turned out, he loved talking about fishing. He can go on and on about fishing. Still does to this day as his instagram account illustrates. Which is how he’s spent his lockdown, on a boat, with some rods, fishing, with the odd braai thrown in for good measure.
“This lockdown has been good for me, it’s given me the break I really needed. I’ve done nothing,” he said later, adding, “I’ve not picked up a cricket bat since the Australia ODI series.”
It wasn’t important for him to get back into training like many of his teammates have done recently because no one knows when ‘proper’ cricket would resume, he explained. All he’s done is keep up with the fitness goals stipulated by CSA, but as for batting and keeping - that can wait.
For those who believe professional sportsmen should be held to a disciplined standard, hearing De Kock speak that way probably sounds painful. There’ll be others wondering if he’s getting the best out of his unique natural talents, who’ll be concerned. However one can’t deny his importance to the Proteas - as underlined by the three awards he scooped last week; Men’s Player of the Year, Test Player of the Year and Player’s Player of the Year.
That last one is significant. It tells you that De Kock’s teammates value him. And for all the outside noise - from media, the public, ex-players and commentators - that is what matters most.
He gets along with everyone and doesn’t drift towards cliques as used to be the case with the national side.
He’s a game-changer and a match winner and a player like that gets given a bit more leeway as a result.
So he gets some extra time to fish, he’s allowed to not let the world’s problems burst into his bubble and he doesn’t have to pick up a bat and head for nets just because Cricket SA and the government now says it’s okay to do so.
“You can have one Quinny in your side, you probably can’t have 11,” Proteas head coach Mark Boucher quipped after the first Test against England last season, where De Kock’s first innings 95, proved instrumental in setting up a South African victory.
It’s that kind of performance that makes De Kock so valuable to the Proteas. And when he switches on in a dressing room and engages with a match, teammates and coaches swear by his natural ‘feel’ for the game. He is tactically astute, hence the decision to make him limited overs captain.
The big question for him will be: Can he lead South Africa to a world cup title?
You know he won’t feel the pressure, nor be weighed down by the country’s troubled history in ICC competitions, because that’s just not how De Kock operates.
He does care when he plays - TV cameras have caught him angrily swinging his bat at items in the dressing room when he’d been dismissed - and it would be a mistake to think the same De Kock who has not picked up a bat in three months, will be playing once the sport resumes.
De Kock cares. He’s just a bit different. And that’s good; for him, the Proteas and the sport.