T20 World Cup 2021: Team Will Welcome Quinton de Kock Back With Open Arms - Rassie van der Dussen

The South Africa team will welcome back Quinton de Kock “with open arms”, said batsman Rassie van der Dussen ahead of the Sri Lanka game after the wicket-keeper announced that he will be taking the knee in the remainder of the tournament.

Quinton de Kock made himself unavailable for the West Indies game on Tuesday after deciding to defy CSA’s directive, which made taking the knee mandatory for all the players, causing a huge uproar.

On Thursday, the left-hander apologised to his teammates and fans and has made himself available for selection for the rest of the tournament.

“’Quinny’ (De Kock) is one of the best players in the world, of course the team will welcome him back with open arms,” van der Dussen said. 

The right-hander stated that the players “understood why he did what he did” and demanded that this chapter should be closed now for Quinton de Kock and all players to focus on their World Cup campaign.

“It is not even the case of him asking us. I mean, we understood why he did what he did and it is the end of the story. If he is selected, and I am sure he will be, he will come back and it will be like nothing ever happened because nobody held any grievances against him.

“He will just come back and hopefully it will be like it always was and he can be in the right frame of mind to deliver match-winning performances like he has done for so many years. He is a valuable player to the team and having Quinny on the field as our brother, our friend and our world-class player will be good,” he added.

Quinton de Kock didn’t even have to explain to us really: Rassie van der Dussen

Rassie van der Dussen added that Quinton de Kock had been feeling “extremely remorseful” about the chaos that had happened.

“Quinny is extremely remorseful, I can say in a positive way. I think the characteristic of our team is that even though he took that decision, everyone understood why he took it.

“We have always supported him, even though the timing might not have been great and it was a bit chaotic in the build-up to the match, but we all understood and supported him,” he said.

Van der Dussen, who starred with the bat in the win over West Indies, admitted that the players and the management understood the wicket-keeper’s thoughts well and didn’t need any explanation from their senior cricketer about his decision.

“And I think that speaks volumes about where we are as a team, the squad and the management, where we don’t judge but we accept and we expect everyone to think for themselves.

“The team is always an open environment to anyone who is a member. He didn’t even have to explain to us really. We sort of accept everyone as they come, we have come a long way and our team is a safe space for the guys,” the 32-year-old elaborated.

South Africa had lost their first match to Australia before defeating West Indies. They take on Sri Lanka on Saturday in Sharjah.

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