I Pleaded With AB de Villiers Not to Retire in 2018 – Cricket South Africa National Selector

Recently a report published on ESPNcricinfo revealed that Cricket South Africa had turned down an offer from AB de Villiers who wanted to come out of international retirement in April. CSA today confirmed the news and explained why they had to reject the last minute offer.

The Story

According to the CSA National Selector, Linda Zondi, the selection committee came to know about de Villiers’ desire on the day of World Cup squad announcement on April 18. It was a shock to all and not possible to include him as he had not featured in any format of cricket for South Africa in any level in the preceding 12 months.

But this was a primary criterion for the selection. It wasn’t possible for the selection commute to ignore the players who had put in hard work for this mega tournament. Linda said that CSA made the decision totally out principal even after knowing how big ABD is as a cricketer.

National Selector Opines

He, in fact, mentioned about the vacuum created by ABD’s retirement. ABD announced his retirement out of nowhere in 2018 after dedicating 14 years to South African cricket. Linda recalling the period, said, “I pleaded with AB de Villiers not to retire in 2018. Although there was a perception that he was picking and choosing when to play – which was not true – I did give him the option to plan and monitor his season to get him to the World Cup fresh and in a good space.”

Linda informed that ABD had to make himself available for the home tours against Sri Lanka and Pakistan to be considered for selection. But de Villiers was happy with his decision of retirement. So even though he is one the finest players of his generation Cricket South Africa couldn’t include him in the final squad for World Cup. “It was no option when I received the news on the day of the squad announcement, our team was finalized and confirmed.

#CSAnews CSA National Selection Panel Convenor, Linda Zondi, addresses the media reports regarding AB de Villiers https://t.co/d1m8EGCkYS pic.twitter.com/YekcK7RliL

— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) June 6, 2019

AB De Villiers Came up with a Tweet

After all this ABD came up with a tweet saying right now it is more important to support the team. Here is what he tweeted

All that’s important is that we should all focus on supporting the team at the World Cup. There is a long way to go and I believe the boys can still go all the way #ProteaFire

— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) June 6, 2019

Also Read: Who will win the ODI World Cup 2019? Here are the top 5 contenders

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