The questions, and answers, about Quinton de Kock's return

Quinton de Kock is back from the international wilderness. Having last played for South Africa in June last year, on Monday he was named in the squads for seven white-ball games to be played in Namibia and Pakistan from October 11 to November 8.

Infamously, De Kock retired from Test cricket in December 2021 after the first match of the home series against India. He quit ODIs in less controversial circumstances - after South Africa's World Cup semifinal against Australia at the Eden Gardens in November 2023. But he did not make a similar announcement after the T20 World Cup final at Kensington Oval in June 2024, his most recent international in the format.

Since then, De Kock has divided his time between family, fishing and flying to far-flung franchise tournaments. After his most recent international he has played 58 games for Seattle Orcas, Barbados Royals, Durban's Super Giants, Kolkata Knight Riders, and Mumbai Indians New York.

But his status as an international has been awkwardly uncertain. In September last year then white-ball coach and sole selector Rob Walter was asked about the issue at a press conference.

"I don't know, to be dead honest," Walter said. "For the next little while there will be no conversations between myself and Quinny as to whether he wants to play for South Africa again. I've left the door open for him to approach me if and when he wants to do that. That might never happen."

That conversation did happen. In the dead of night early on South Africa's white-ball tour of Australia last month. But it didn't involve Walter.

"We got to Darwin, and I had just put my head on the pillow at about two in the morning when my phone rang and it was Quinny," Shukri Conrad, who replaced Walter in May, told a press conference on Monday (September 22). "I chatted for a bit and I said I'd come back to him in a couple of days, and chatted to a few people."

Why did De Kock want to return to the green and gold fold?

Conrad: "He said to me, 'I think I've still got a lot to offer. I miss playing for South Africa. I want to play for the Proteas. I think I can make a difference.'

"When someone of Quinny's calibre expresses a desire to play for South Africa and he's fully on board - he's not saying he's only available for a World Cup; there are no strings attached, he's available - who am I to stop him? We all know what a talisman he is."

Indeed, we do. And a T20 World Cup looms in Sri Lanka and India in February and March ...

"There are by no means any guarantees with regards to World Cups, or anything," Conrad said. "If everything adds up, form etcetera, he would stake a massive claim to be included in the T20 World Cup squad. But there's still water to flow under this bridge; it's just the start. We're getting him playing and representing South Africa. It's a great opportunity, but it's the first step and we'll take it from there.

"If he makes our T20 World Cup squad based on fitness and form, then he does. If he doesn't, then he doesn't. And then he's still eligible to play for South Africa. Myself, [Patrick Moroney, CSA convenor selector], together with [Enoch Nkwe, CSA director of national teams and high performance] and the captains, we select. The players don't select themselves."

Even players as celebrated as De Kock. He is behind only Faf du Plessis and Temba Bavuma among active players on the list of South Africa's top Test runscorers. No active player has made more ODI runs for South Africa, and he is the alltime leader - whether retired or not - in T20Is.

De Kock will also bring to the dressingroom the intangible qualities that come with greatness. His poster was probably on the wall of several of the players with whom he will soon share time and space. Now they will get to know him up close and personal.

"Quinny was an enigma and he's still an enigma," Conrad said of a player who reached international level in a T20I against New Zealand at Kingsmead in December 2012 - four days after his 20th birthday. At 32, he will be in the mix with 22-year-old Dewald Brevis and Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Kwena Maphaka, who are 19. De Kock's captain in the ODI series in Pakistan, Matthew Breetzke, is almost six years his junior.

"He debuted very young, so he experienced a lot of what the Brevises and the Lhuan-dres and I think he'll be a great sounding board for them," Conrad said. "He's one of the easiest guys to get along with; really a matter-of-fact kind of guy, and he wants to give his best for South Africa.

"He's toured Pakistan before, which is always a tough place. So I think he'll be great for Matt [Breetzke] as well. He adds a lot from behind the stumps. All round, he brings so much to the side - not only on the field but in the changeroom as well."

All that said, do South Africa need De Kock?

They have played 23 ODIs, and won 10 of them, since De Kock last appeared in the format. They've had 21 T20Is, and won eight. That's a white-ball success rate of 40.91%.

 Of his last 23 ODIs, South Africa won 15. Along with a dozen of the last 21 T20Is he played. That's an overall winning percentage of 61.37.

The answer to the question would seem to be yes.

Does De Kock need South Africa?

He has an estimated net worth of USD13-million, which buys you and your family a luxurious life in South Africa. But De Kock's IPL salary has almost halved in the past two years - it went from USD810,000 in 2024 to USD430,000 in 2025 - and Brevis fetched almost seven times as much as he did at the SA20 auction earlier this month, where 11 players were sold for more than De Kock.

Maybe the need is mutual.

We hear often that T20 leagues serve as a "shop window" for players hoping to make it to the international stage. Perhaps, with so many leagues cluttering the calendar, the pendulum is beginning to swing the other way. Can it be that, if they are no longer playing internationally, players' worth to leagues diminishes?

Whatever the answer to that question, De Kock's return will raise eyebrows among those who feel players must take part in domestic competitions to be eligible for international selection. The fact that De Kock was last in a match played solely under CSA's auspices - so, not including the SA20 - in February 2022 will lend them ammunition for that argument. But at least he hasn't pulled AB de Villiers' trick of making a casual, vague and unhelpful offer to come back on the eve of the 2019 World Cup.

Probably a range of factors prompted De Kock to decide to moor his fishing boat for longer than he had become accustomed to doing since June last year. Never look a gift metaphor in the mouth:

De Kock wasn't reeled back into international cricket. Instead a fish that had successfully wriggled off the hook has chosen to jump back into the boat. And he's quite the catch.