'Excuse Me For Being Political': Pommie Mbangwa, Darren Sammy Discuss The Quinton de Kock Issue On Commentary

Cricket Image for 'Excuse Me For Being Political': Pommie Mbangwa, Darren Sammy Discuss The Quinton (Image Source: AFP)

South Africa's star wicketkeeper-batter, Quinton De Kock, opted out of the T20 World Cup match against West Indies, on Tuesday. Cricket South Africa later clarified that de Kock refused to 'take the knee' in support of the Black Lives Matter(BLM) movement. 

When the event was taking place, former West Indian captain Darren Sammy and Zimbabwe cricketer Pommie Mbangwa had an honest conversation regarding the issue and their take on Quinton de Kock's decision. 

"I dare say Darren that cricket will take a back seat and it’s a big statement for me to make in a cricket World Cup where absolutely everybody would like to play in. I would say as the team concerned is South Africa who have a history of exclusion and racism. And for this as an initiative to still be here is huge," Mbangwa said. 

"This South African statement reads that there are concerns raised over the different postures taken by team members in support of the BLM initiative created an unintended perception of disparity or lack of support for the initiative which essentially says lack of support for people of colour within the side, the South Africa side, within the country South Africa, in the world as a whole."

"Excuse me for being political because some will say it is being political but I cannot shed my skin. I hope, I hope that the discussion at the very least can be about how to be united, about something that everybody agrees on. This is also in the hope that there is an agreement in that regard."

Responding to Mbangwa's comments, Darren Sammy said: "Yeah, sometimes I don’t understand why is it so difficult to support this movement if you understand what it stands for. That’s just my opinion. What my kind have been through. There are other issues affecting the world but I don’t understand why it’s so difficult." 

Mbangwa concluded by saying: "I’ll say this with regard to Quinton de Kock that freedom of choice is fair enough. I don’t want to speculate on what the personal reasons exactly are because I haven’t got those but I hope that discussion can actually be had. Thank you for letting me have my say. I’ll move on."