AB de Villiers’ retirement from international cricket in May 2018 came as a shock to everyone. The dynamic hitter would have been an integral part of South Africa’s plans for the 2019 World Cup, and the decision to cancel time meant that captain Faf du Plessis would be left without one of his biggest match winners for the ICC tournament. As it turned out, De Villiers’ absence was a huge void that SA was unable to fill as they finished seventh on the points table and were the second team after Afghanistan to be eliminated from the competition.
Read also | ‘Cricket is the second most important sport’: Shane Warne wants Boxing Day test in Melbourne
Du Plessis and de Villiers go back to their under-16 days in 1998, when the two shared a hostel room together. Perhaps that is why when De Villiers decided to end his international career, his friend du Plessis never forced him not to, even though he was tempted to do so.
“When AB left, it was very hard for me, because I depended a lot on him, as a friend, and obviously as the best player on the team; we needed his skills, ”du Plessis told R Ashwin on the tour’s YouTube channel.
Read also | Cricket Australia Tries To Find BBL Team For Great Indian Yuvraj Singh: Report
“So that conversation was … when he said that to me, he said that he was done, that he was done with international cricket, as a friend, my first instinct was, ‘I’m here for you and I’ll support you. If you feel like you’re at the end of your career and you don’t want to keep doing it, then that’s fine, I support that decision 100%. ‘
Controversy erupted in the middle of last year’s World Cup when it was revealed that De Villiers made one last effort to come out of retirement, but the South African team management, along with captain du Plessis and head coach Ottis Gibson, they turned it down because they felt it would be unfair to those who had worked hard to get to the South African World Cup team. However, upon retirement, du Plessis revealed that he wanted De Villiers to continue, but the friend in him overshadowed his role as captain.
“As captain, I thought, ‘How do we move forward without AB, how do we get the same performances?’ But the friend in me outperformed the captain in me. And I just said, ‘We’re going to miss you, are you sure?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, I’m 100% sure, I don’t want to play international cricket anymore. I no longer have the drive to do it. So I stop, ”du Plessis said.
“I immediately respected it and left it there. I never tried to convince him again, because I respected what he said. Even at times when we desperately needed him. “
.
