T20 World Cup | de Kock makes himself unavailable after SA makes anti-racism gesture compulsory

Interesting sets of events unfolded after the toss in South Africa vs West Indies game in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. South Africa captain Temba Bavuma after winning the toss, decided to field first and had a surprise announcement that opener and dashing batter Quinton de Kock had decided to make himself unavailable for the match due to personal reasons.

At that time it was thought that the personal reasons were not known but later on it came to light that de Kock might have decided not to play after Cricket South Africa made it mandatory for players and support staff to take the knee in support of the anti-racism movement.

The statement by CSA came on Monday night, just a day ahead of today’s game.

The CSA has addressed the issue and in a statement said that it understands that it was a personal decision of de Kock, but since the board had already made itself clear that SA would be taking a united stand against racism. The board said that it would now take feedback from the team management and decide on the future course of events.

Commentators Pommie Mbangwa and Daren Sammy on-air made allegations that de Kock decide not to take the knee and hence opted out of the game.

During the commentary, Mbangwa said, “Lack of support for the initiative essentially means lack of support for people of colour within the team, in SA and in the world as a whole. Excuse me if I sound Political, but I can't shed my skin."

While Sammy on the other hand said, “As my mother always said, you've got to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything. Sometimes I don't understand: why is it so difficult to support this movement, if you understand what it stands for?”

CSA Board Chairperson, Lawson Naidoo in a press release said, “Race should not be manipulated to amplify our weaknesses. Diversity can and should find expression in many facets of our daily lives, but not when it comes to taking a stand against racism.”

As far as the game is concerned, West Indies were 89-2 at the end of 13 overs after a very slow start where they were 6-0 in the first three overs.

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T20 World Cup | SA vs WI: Taking nothing for granted, Rabada hopeful of turnaround by Proteas

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T20 World Cup | Windies will continue being aggressive with better shot selection against South Africa

West Indies coach Phil Simmons blamed the shot selection of his batters for being bundled out for a meagre 55, the third-lowest T20 World Cup total ever and lowest ever for the team from the Caribbean. The aggressive approach adopted by the team was according to the style of play and the coach wasn’t worried about that. He would rather have the team playing aggressively, but with better shot selection. Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Simmons said, "Well, the style in which we play our cricket has always been in the style in which we play our cricket. But we also got to assess the situation at the time and play according to the situation. We will continue to be in our aggressive state, but our shot-selection and assessment of the situation must be a lot better." "For me, Saturday was just about bad shot selection. The bowling wasn't, as we would say, extraordinary. All the guys have played against these guys [England] before, so I just put it down to bad shot selection. We need to improve that tenfold by the time we get to Tuesday,” the coach added. The biggest threat that the West Indies team would have to face in their next game against South Africa would of playing chinaman spinner Tabriaz Shamsi, who also troubled a lot of West Indian batters in Proteas’ tour of the Caribbean in June this year. Simmons was aware of the threat and said that the team is working on it and better results are expected in the next game. 'Yeah, we've been looking back at that [T20I series in the West Indies] and seeing how in the games so far here [in the UAE] how people have played and won but also about how batsmen are going to find a way to score off him and without him being much of a threat,” said the 58-year-old. After losing a close low scoring encounter in Abu Dhabi, the Temba Bavuma led said have moved to Dubai where Windies were drubbed by England.

Terming Pakistan favourites for T20 World Cup, Williamson hopeful of game to be played in good spirit

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Valuation of IPL franchises through the years

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