South Africa’s director of cricket Graeme Smith says Quinton de Kock will only serve as the Proteas’ limited-overs captain in order to ensure he is not overburdened.
In a big news day for Cricket South Africa on Friday, Smith’s director of cricket role was officially made full-time, and the former Proteas skipper explained why De Kock wouldn’t take up the Test captaincy duties in addition to the leadership role he has already assumed in limited-overs cricket.
READ: Smith confirms who won’t be Test captain
‘He [De Kock] will be our white ball captain, not Test captain going forward. We want to keep him fresh and playing well,’ said Smith.
‘I can’t tell you who it’s going to be. We are in a debate over it. There is no one person you could pinpoint right now and say that’s the guy. There are lots of players vying for selection. When we do play cricket we will see who escalates themselves.
‘Having been in the job myself, captaining all three formats is challenging. From a workload and mental capacity, to burden Quinton with all three formats wouldn’t be beneficial for us. We want to keep him as expressive as possible, because of the player he is.’
Smith added that they may potentially ‘take a risk on someone and back them’.
‘We are trying to understand who has the leadership credentials and the respect. This is coming from a person who had a risk taken on then [when Smith was appointed as a young captain], it is something we would consider.’
