Kieron Pollard on Quinton De Kock’s Refusal To Take The Knee For The BLM Movement: “This Is Sort Of News To Us”
South Africa’s top wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock’s decision to walk out of Tuesday’s T20 World Cup game after refusing to take a knee in support of the ‘Black Lives Matter movement came as “news” to West Indies captain Kieron Pollard, who encouraged fans not to speculate on the event. He stated that he and his staff are “deeply” committed to the effort and would continue to do their part to eradicate racism. Pollard’s remarks come after Cricket South Africa ordered its players to kneel in support of the Black Lives Matter movement before their match against the West Indies on Tuesday, a decision that didn’t sit well with De Kock, who had previously indicated his aversion to making the gesture.
“Personally, I don’t know of any athlete who would refuse to accept it (take the knee). That is something I am not aware of. So this is new to us, or at least to me “After losing by eight wickets to South Africa in the Super 12 stage for the second time in a row, Pollard stated.
“I’m sure you’re aware of our feelings on the subject. It is something that we as a team and as individuals are passionate about, and we will continue to do so.
“Everyone has an opinion on it, but as I’ve always said, once you’re educated and understand why you’re doing it, we’ll understand why you’re doing it, but I think education is the key, and we don’t want someone doing it for us in isolation or feeling sorry for us.”
When asked if this development will influence his personal connection with De Kock, Pollard hesitated to “speculate” before getting to the heart of the situation, despite the fact that they are both Mumbai Indians teammates in the IPL.
“As I mentioned before, all I’m hearing is what’s happened. I don’t know the truth or the facts of the situation. “I can’t just take that and give you an answer or make any assumptions about your relationship or anything like that. At this point, that’s getting too deep,” he remarked.
“Yes, he was a teammate of mine with the Mumbai Indians, and we played cricket together.” In terms of everything else, that’s where the buck ends. Everything else is conjecture. Let’s wait and see what occurs next. Allow me to digest for a moment.”
After two consecutive losses, the defending champions dropped to the bottom of the Group 1 point chart in Super 12.
“I think we left probably 20-25 runs out there when we batted,” Pollard said, “and that could have made a difference in how we finished off.”
“I also believe that my dismissal in the final over was vital since we knew they had an over to makeup and I was counting on it,” he remarked.
“We have to dig deeper as a team,” he remarked, urging a struggling West Indies batting squad to come up. As a hitting team, we need to dig deeper. We must come out with our heads held high and attempt to play a nice game of cricket.
“We’ve put ourselves in a position where our run rate is fairly low, and we haven’t won any games in terms of win percentage.” So the next three games must be won,” he said.