South African cricketer AB de Villiers reportedly offered to come out of retirement and play for the team in this year’s ICC World Cup. However, the offer was turned down by the team management on the eve of selecting the squad for the tournament.
According to ESPNCricinfo, de Villiers had approached the South Africa team captain Faf du Plessis and the team’s head coach Ottis Gibson in May, expressing his desire to leave retirement and join the team for the World Cup. However, the offer was turned down with since he had not participated in South African domestic matches or international games as a result of his retirement and hence, he did not meet the criteria to join the team. The report also suggested that de Villier's request was not even considered since it would be unfair to other batsmen who had been performing in his absence.
The news has emerged amid a disastrous start to South Africa's Cricket World Cup campaign in England. Three defeats in a row has left South Africa's World Cup hopes hanging in the balance just one week into the tournament.
While South Africa's bowlers have struggled with injuries, it was the batting that let the Proteas down in the games against India and England. "Today someone had to bat through, we didn't do that. To have so many 30s and 40s is not unacceptable," South Africa captain Faf du Plessis said after Wednesday's match against India.
The team has been looking to shed its tag of 'chokers' on the World Cup stage. The Proteas have fared poorly having lost 9 out of 15 World Cup knockout matches played. Prior to the defeat against India, South Africa was shocked by Bangladesh at The Oval stadium in London on Sunday.
de Villiers announced his retirement from international cricket in May 2018 after a glittering 14-year career. His retirement came as a shock since it was just one year before the ICC Cricket World Cup in England. He was last seen playing for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) this year and is set to linkup with English county team Middlesex for the T20 Blast tournament. At 35 years of age, he showed his class in the IPL by scoring 442 runs in the tournament.
In an interview with Breakfast with Champions, de Villiers suggested that criticism from South African supporters led to his decision to retire. "For the last three years of my career, I was labelled as a guy who is picking and choosing when I was playing and when not. So I got quite a lot of criticism from back home, which also played a role in me retiring," he said in the interview published in May.
However, the ace ciricketer has tweeted in support of his former teammates and encouraged them to go all the way.
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