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Former South Africa player AB de Villiers revealed the reason behind his early retirement from international cricket in 2018. He said that the team environment at that point wasn't suitable for him.
De Villiers hung up his boots at the highest level of the game after playing 114 Tests, 228 One-Day Internationals, and 78 T20 Internationals for around 14 years. With 19864 runs in 415 matches at 48.33, Mr. 360 finished as the second-most run-scorer of South Africa across formats behind Jacques Kallis.
AB de Villiers’ retirement shocked many within the South African cricket circuit as well as many others across the globe, given that the 2019 World Cup was just 12 months away from that point.
Speaking to Robin Uthappa on JioCinema’s Home of Heroes, the former South African skipper said:
“The environment in the South Africa team was a problem for me at that time. I didn’t have the team setup which I wanted to be a part of. That sort of changed me during the backend of my career. I lost a lot of friends in Boucher, Smith, and Kallis after they retired. All of a sudden looking around, none of them were there.”
He added:
“Some of the other guys were younger than me and played less games. All of sudden it was me to drive things, which I really enjoyed, but you need a group like 4-5 people that are very tight. They understand the same things that you do.”
"I’ve always hated stats" - AB de Villiers
AB de Villiers scored 9577 runs in 218 ODI innings at an average of 53.5, including 25 centuries and 53 fifties. He would have become the second player from his country to achieve the milestone after Kallis.
The former Proteas star admitted that he detested people's obsession with stats and said that he was keen to retire from his playing days at Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL.
AB de Villiers said:
“I’ve always hated stats. So, I looked at the 10,000 run mark and I thought I just told myself to say that 10,000 is a number. And anyway, yeah, I’m going to decide to myself when I’ve had enough.”
He added:
“And I felt at the time, due to many reasons, I think there’s about 20 good reasons, some of them very personal, some of them not so much. I felt, you know what? It’s time for me. What do I want to achieve for the last four years of my career, I wanted to play and finish at RCB and enjoy my cricket. It’s always been about enjoyment.”
De Villiers was part of JioCinema’s commentary panel during the IPL 2023. He regularly posts his opinions on Twitter related to matches in world cricket.
