“The action that he took was dumb”: Michael Holding lashes out at Quinton de Kock for not taking a knee for BLM movement

Michael Holding has questioned the stand of Quinton de Kock for not taking a knee in the ICC T20 World Cup.

Former West Indian player, Michael Holding has critically taken Quinton de Kock’s decision of not taking a knee against West Indies.

De Kock was one of many South African players who have not been taking the knee before the game. The knee has been taken to support the BLM movement, which is solidarity towards fighting racism. Before the West Indies game, the South African board made it mandatory for all players, but Quinton de Kock refused. Due to this, de Kock was removed from the team.

However, de Kock did issue an apology after the game, and he agreed to take a knee.

“I never ever wanted to make this a Quinton issue” de Kock’s said. “If me taking a knee helps to educate others, and makes the lives of others better, I am more than happy to do so.” Quinton said, “didn’t understand why I had to prove it (his feelings on antiracism) with a gesture.”

Michael Holding describes de Kock’s action as “DUMB”

Holding took a critical dig at Quinton de Kock’s decision of not taking a knee. He described his decision as dumb.

“I just know that the action that he took was dumb, it did not look good. Has he now come to the realisation that what people are trying to do is real and worthwhile supporting or did he not know what the gesture was or what people were trying to do? What was it?” Holding asked.

According to Holding, if you are against racism, you should take the knee. There is no reason for de Kock to not take the knee if he is not against the movement.

“There is a worldwide recognised and accepted gesture to show that you believe that black lives matter, and that is what has been happening since the killing of George Floyd. And you refuse to do that gesture? I will never understand how that can be the case.

“But I don’t know enough about the young man to draw any conclusions. I can only hope from his statement that he made a silly mistake and realised the error of his ways and now he is going to do what he should have been doing from the very beginning,” Holding added.