Graeme Smith Opens Up On Quinton de Kock's ODI Retirement, Says 'He Made The Best Decision For Himself'

Former South Africa National Cricket Team captain Graeme Smith has shared his views on wicketkeeper-batter Quinton de Kock’s decision to retire from the 50-over cricket after the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023.

Quinton de Kock has announced that he will retire from ODI cricket after the World Cup but will most likely play T20Is for South Africa until the 2024 World Cup. The star wicketkeeper-batter had already quit Test cricket way back in December 2021.

Due to the growth of the franchise leagues across the globe, many feel that ODI cricket won’t be able to survive for very long and Graeme Smith is interested to see how will ODI cricket find its space between World Cups.

“It will be an interesting time to see how ODI cricket progresses. From my perspective, the calendar is already full with franchise cricket and bilateral cricket. It will be interesting to see how ODI cricket finds space between World Cups, that will be an interesting dynamic to see,” he said in an interaction with PTI.

Talking about Quinton de Kock’s retirement from ODIs, Graeme Smith said that the wicketkeeper-batter took the decision because he wants to play more franchise cricket and spend more time with his family. He said:

“Quinnie is a personality, who has always enjoyed his time away from cricket. We know cricket these days requires immense amount of travelling and commitment and him as a personality always enjoyed a balance. His decision to retire is based on obvious opportunities to play franchise cricket but also opportunities to stay at home.”

Quinton de Kock has probably made the best decision for himself – Graeme Smith

Graeme Smith backed Quinton de Kock’s retirement decision, saying that he has made the best decision for himself and his family. He elaborated:

“That’s always been clear in the way Quinton has operated as personality. I retired at 33 and I look at his (Quinton) record and he has played a lot of ODI cricket already.

“I played 196 ODI games and I don’t think he (145) is far off that. He has played a lot of cricket and how Quinnie is as a personality, he has probably made the best decision for himself where he is with himself and his family.”

According to Graeme Smith, the franchise leagues are financially attractive and the pressure will be on the country’s cricket boards to keep players interested in representing the nation at the international level instead of announcing early retirements.

“Franchise leagues are well-managed, well run and there are financial opportunities as well. So pressure is there on home federations to kind of get there and be strong and keep players interested to play for national team and contribute,” Smith said.

He also said that only the Big-3 of cricket – India, Australia, and England – have a large pool of players, and other teams need to have the same if they want to ensure their national setup stays strong. He said:

“Other aspect of conversation is having real depth of talent. Outside Australia, England and India, certain nations don’t have that depth of talent. That’s what other nations need to ensure that you have 30-35 players available to be selected for your nation all the time.”

Coming back to Quinton de Kock, he smashed a brilliant 84 runs in the World Cup 2023 warm-up match against New Zealand. He will be next seen in action when South Africa National Cricket Team take on Sri Lanka National Cricket Team at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on October 07.