Graeme Smith reveals AB de Villiers' future and South Africa's captaincy plan in ODIs

In their attempt to revamp the cricketing setup in the country, Cricket South Africa director of cricket Graeme Smith has commented and revealed about South Africa's captaincy succession plans and the future of former skipper AB de Villiers.

Talking to The Cricket Times, Smith spoke about the possibility of AB de Villiers playing the T20 World Cup in Australia next year. Smith stressed the fact that not only De Villiers, but all free agents performing well in T20s around the globe will also be considered for the tournament.

“I think it is great that AB has expressed his desire to be back in the system. Those chats (with De Villiers) aren’t formal, but we are looking at options around the T20 World Cup. We would be stupid not to look at the free agents who play in most T20 around the world."

However, Smith was critical of the captaincy issues surrounding the ODI side currently. With Faf du Plessis not in their scheme of things for the 2023 World Cup in India, Smith wants to lay down a platform for the young crop of players to show their mettle at the biggest stage. According to him, Quinton de Kock is the best player to lead them in ODIs from now on.

“It has been our intention to put a succession plan in place for 2023. We see him playing a role, but from a leadership perspective, we see an opportunity to move forward in the one-day arena. And Faf is honest he won’t be around in 2023. Leadership has been an issue in South African cricket, and we felt we should give Quinnie (Quinton de Kock) an opportunity.”