Lockdown has de Kock hook, line and sinker

Cricket wants Quinton de Kock back from the coronavirus lockdown sooner rather than later, but the hankering is not mutual. South Africa's white-ball captain, all-format wicketkeeper and star batter last picked up a bat four months ago. And he doesn't plan on doing so with earnest intent for a while yet, despite being in the 45-man high-performance training squad named last Monday.

During an online press conference after Cricket South Africa's (CSA) awards on Saturday, when he was the major men's winner, De Kock told reporters: "Look, I could be honest. Or I can be...I'll give you my honest opinion: I've done nothing. Lockdown has been, you know, lockdown. I haven't done anything. Obviously I've kept up with fitness. I've done my training in the gym and whatnot, but I haven't hit a ball yet."

Whyever not?

"There's still so much time until the next serious cricket game is going to happen. So to go back to serious training...I don't know when it needs to happen. I mean, you can go back to hitting balls, for now. But we could actually be hitting balls for no reason. That's where I feel I'm at."

The international schedule says South Africa are due in the Caribbean to play the West Indies in two Tests and five T20Is from July 23 to August 16. But clearance to train was only obtained from the government on June 26 and South Africa's borders remain closed. Thus the tour exists only, and is likely to only ever exist, as an itinerary.

"I'm sure other guys have trained, but I kind of needed a little bit of lockdown," de Kock said. "I needed a break to spend time with myself, my family, friends. You know, do my own thing. I've really taken to it and really enjoyed it. I've tried to really stay away from cricket. But as soon as we get the full go-ahead, when serious cricket is going to happen, then I'll get back into it. I'm not too sure when it's going to happen, but as soon as we get the go-ahead then I'll get back into it ASAP."

Reminded that he was in the training group, de Kock said: "Obviously we're all part of the squad. But, because of the regulations, it's hard to have such a big squad in a certain environment. I'm based in a very remote place. There's not much cricket around where I live. I've made sure my fitness is up to date. Practice almost becomes muscle memory. For me, at this point in my career, a break is more important than training."

De Kock lives in Knysna, a picturesque seaside town in the Western Cape famed for its verdant forest, breathtaking views from craggy coastal cliffs, and South Africa's finest oysters. It's no doubt close to heaven for De Kock, who is happiest when he has a fishing rod - not a bat - in his hands. In August last year, he went all the way to Bolivia with another of his ilk, Dale Steyn, in hopes of hooking the infamously feisty golden dorado.

As the 45-man squad cannot train together because of South Africa's anti-virus regulations, the players are to report to their nearest franchise venue to practise in small groups. The nearest such ground to de Kock is St George's Park in Port Elizabeth, 261 kilometers east of Knysna. But Port Elizabeth is in the Eastern Cape and travel across provincial lines is not freely permitted under the current rules, although De Kock might qualify for a permit. The closest franchise venue to Knysna that is also in the Western Cape is Paarl, some 437 kilometers to the west. It's not on the coast, but the area offers decent trout fishing for intrepid anglers like de Kock.

He wasn't about to take the bait: "It's going to be tough to play professional games. We're going to have so many regulations. Realistically, I don't foresee cricket being played [in South Africa] for a while. I'm talking at least a month. Obviously we've got the three-game thing, so we'll play that. But international cricket, I don't know.

"You've got guys like Jacques and Graeme, they're on it. I haven't been part of their conversation so I don't really know. I'm sure they're keen to get some cricket played.

"I've really enjoyed the lockdown, but it comes to the point where I also want to get back on the field and start playing. So I'm very unsure. I'm a bit in the clouds as to what's going on."

Jacques Faul and Graeme Smith, CSA's acting chief executive and their director of cricket, are indeed working hard on getting the game back on the field. Their first step towards that happening is "the three-game thing", a single match of 36 overs contested by three teams of eight players in a new format called 3TC. Originally scheduled for June 27, the venture had to be postponed because CSA couldn't secure government permission in time for it to go ahead as planned.

That has since been granted, and the game is now slated for July 18 in Centurion, which is in Gauteng - where around 4,000 new Covid-19 cases are being reported daily. Consequently, the province's premier, David Makhura, is considering enforcing a tougher version of lockdown. Faul told Cricbuzz on Sunday that CSA had identified Skukuza, a rural hamlet in Mpumalanga, and Potchefstroom in North West as viable alternatives if Centurion is rendered off-limits for cricket in the coming days.

Not that de Kock, who is due to captain one of the 3TC sides, is wondering whether he might soon have the chance to angle for barbel in Mpumalanga's Sand River, catch carp in the Vaal River in North West, or try his luck trawling for empty beer cans and other rubbish in Centurion Lake, which is undergoing rehabilitation in the wake of years of pollution.

De Kock was last on the field in Potchefstroom on March 7, when he captained South Africa to a six-wicket win to seal a 3-0 sweep in an ODI series against Australia. That was their only success in their last seven rubbers across the formats, not counting a disastrous 2019 World Cup campaign in which they won only three of their eight completed matches. So de Kock's seeming ambivalence about getting back on the horse won't sit well with some.

But he wasn't betraying snowflake tendencies when he said he was enjoying lockdown. Not since 2012 has he had such an extended break from the game. Even so, he played 55 matches that year and has reached 50 games on this annual scoreboard five times in the previous eight years. He hit 40 matches in 2011 and has not dipped beneath that benchmark since. The time he spent in Bolivia with Steyn was one of only 11 full months in the past 96 - eight years - in which he has not played cricket.

Small wonder de Kock was relieved when Smith said in April that, because of his already demanding workload, he would not succeed Faf du Plessis as Test captain. "Me and [South Africa coach Mark Boucher] had a very informal chat," de Kock said on Saturday (July 4). "I told him, look, I don't know how I feel about being Test captain also. The reality is that's just too much for me to handle. I know that and I realise that. I don't need all that stress on myself. I could see from a mile away that I didn't need that on top of my shoulders."

Besides, having the white-ball leadership thrust on him in the throes of the tumult cricket in South Africa has been though on and off the field in recent months was challenging enough. Along with a new captain, the team has welcomed a new coach, and his backroom staff, twice since the World Cup. The chief executive is among seven suspended senior staff members, four board members resigned, and longterm sponsors severed ties.

A measure of the solid repair job Faul is doing was the announcement on Thursday of a new headline sponsor, Betway, for the men's Test and ODI formats, the men's T20 team and the women's teams. But CSA have a long way to go before they can consider themselves out of the woods. And even though they expect to record a profit this year - not least because operations have been severely scaled down. For instance, staging Saturday's awards online instead of shelling out for a venue and for the travel, accommodation, wining and dining costs of hundreds of guests probably saved CSA around USD117,000.

Players tend to try and remove themselves from all that, but they are not immune to the effects of instability, as de Kock explained: "There were a lot of changes, especially after the World Cup. Faf had a lot of pressure put on him, and my thing was to make sure I back him. It was difficult. But I found a way, mentally, to get past it.

"Playing for a high-profile cricket team you go through so many changes at so many different times that it almost becomes the norm to get past the difficult times. So it was difficult at stages but we got through it, which is the important thing."

Doubtless, a fishing rod and a stretch of water helped De Kock reach that peace.