South African star players Quinton de Kock and Anrich Nortje are among the key players omitted as Cricket South Africa announced the contracted players squad for the 2024/25 season on Tuesday, March 26.
De Kock is currently with the Lucknow Super Giants for the Indian Premier League 2024, while Anrich Nortje has joined the Delhi Capitals squad recently, following an injury hiatus.
Nortje has not played for South Africa after suffering a stress fracture in September 2023 and had to miss out on the ODI World Cup and the country's summer season. Notably, he has made a return to the domestic circuit where he played two matches. The speedster is with DC now and is likely to play soon in IPL.
CSA's director of cricket Enoch Nkwe said that Nortje requested to put his focus on T20 cricket but is not retiring from other forms of the game. "He requested he wants to focus on T20 cricket for the next few months. He is not retiring from any internationals. He will avail himself for T20 internationals. Towards the end of the year, he will look to play ODIs again," he said as quoted by EPNCricinfo. Nortje's joining in IPL was delayed due to the birth of his first child a week ago.
Notably, de Kock has retired from ODIs as well after the 50-over World Cup in India. He has said that he would remain available to play the T20s but was not part of the T20I series against India earlier in the year. The Proteas star went to Australia to play the Big Bash League and then returned for the SA20. He was given time off the cricket field during the initial rounds of the CSA domestic T20 challenge.
"He will be available for the T20 World Cup but he understands he needs to perform. He wants to earn his place," Nkwe said on de Kock.
CSA have some new entrants into the contracted squad as Nandre Burger and Tony de Zorzi have been included in the list. Burger has debuted across all formats for South Africa and was a major highlight in the Test series against India when he picked 11 wickets across the two Tests and was the joint-second highest wicket-taker. De Zorzi has played Tests and ODIs.
