Cricket has a rich tradition of displaying immense sportsmanship. Win or loss, cricketers shall play the game with honor and integrity. This tradition has continued from test cricket into today’s dynamic T20 leagues such as the IPL.
In this year’s IPL as well, Shikhar Dhawan has shown great honesty by walking away before being given out. International cricket has also seen instances of such sportsmanship which involved Dhoni recalling Ian Bell. The ongoing IPL has a special award for observing and ranking teams on their fair play. One team that will climb the chart in the Paytm Fair Play ranking today will be Lucknow Super Giants. Quinton de Kock showed why he is such a respected senior international player.
QDK wins hearts by walking off
The incident today took place in the 13th over of the match. Lucknow is playing Punjab Kings and they were put to bat first. A flourishing partnership ensued between Deepak Hooda and de Kock. Lucknow had made 98 runs for the loss of 1 wicket by the 13th over. Quinton had made an anchored 46 off 37 balls. Sandeep Sharma was bowling the over. On the 4th ball of the over, Sandeep bowled a slower one outside off which de Kock attempted to cut. However, he missed it and the ball was collected by Jitesh Sharma, the wicket-keeper. Sandeep straight away appealed but the umpire seem disinterested.
It was at this point, QDK started to walk off. He did not wait to see what the umpire did and whether the team took a review. He walked off towards the dugout as he was aware that he had nicked it.
— James Tyler (@JamesTyler_99) April 29, 2022
This act by QdK was instantly appreciated by Sandeep Sharma himself. He patted de Kock as he made his walk back. Cricket supporters also appreciated this effort by de Kock and some were reminded of the great Sachin Tendulkar who had similarly walked off. However, fans were critical of the standard of umpiring. All in all, this restores our faith in the game.
Umpire gazab nashe me hai bhai 🙄#IPL2022 Walkout by Quinton De Kock reminded of Sachin Tendulkar as he did it many times in his career.
— Kumar Pratyush (@the_PRATYUSH_05) April 29, 2022
Quinton de kock should not have walked out we missed out on sprit of cricket debate #CricketTwitter
— Mustafa (@MustafaSays_) April 29, 2022
Good sportsmanship from De Kock but clown umpires 🤡
— VK18 (@GoatedVirat) April 29, 2022
De kock you earned respect.
— woke (@hawashmi) April 29, 2022
Well done Quinton de Kock for walking in #IPL. Heather Knight – take note, no shame in that.
— Rick Harris (@LongWordMonthly) April 29, 2022
Gentlemen Quinton de kock 👏
— #Valimai 👑 #AK61𓃵 (@thala_diehard) April 29, 2022
