South Africa Test skipper Dean Elgar revealed in the pre-match press conference that he was as shocked as anyone after hearing news of Quinton de Kock’s retirement from the red-ball format. De Kock announced his retirement from the longest format after South Africa’s historic 113-run defeat in Centurion last year.
"I was pretty shocked. But sitting down with Quiney (Quinton de Kock), he explained his reasons and I respect and fully understand his decision," Elgar said in the virtual press conference before Johannesburg Test.
"The responsibility for us is to carry and conduct ourself as international players. We still have to be professional around this. We still have a Test series to level, so I don't think there will be any hangover or shock over Quiney's retirement,” Elgar said while looking ahead at the next two Tests.
The South African opener was also asked about the tone De Kock’s retirement sets as he wants to focus on white-ball moving forward.
"Players respect the environment. We realise that we had a few setbacks in recent times and we need to obviously have to be clever around it and get over it. I don't see this affecting the players of still being shocked about his retirement,” the 34-year-old said.
"His reasons are his reasons and his choice to retire, we as a group fully respect it and we as a group have to get over it and move on now,” he added.
"The game moves on, when guys retire. I have been fortunate enough to experience some of the big guys retire, one thing I realised, the game doesn't stop for you, we have to get over it quickly and respect the position Quiney is in." Elgar expressed that the game goes on irrespective of who retires.
"If it was up to me, I would not have any of these guys retirement but it is part and parcel of the game, it is out of your hand. Don't get me wrong, not having Quinton around is disappointing for me, something I need to get over," the southpaw shared his opinion.
