The “AB de Villiers” saga continues to hover over South Africa in the ongoing World Cup, almost as much as the dark clouds that continue to deck the Welsh capital.
The Faf du Plessis-led side may have moved on from the south-east of England to the rugby-crazed land of JPR Williams, Barry John and more recently Shane Williams, but De Villiers seems to have move with them.
After coach Ottis Gibson and captain Du Plessis explained the details surrounding De Villiers’ exclusion from South Africa’s World Cup squad in Southampton, it was now the turn of Rassie van der Dussen.
It was certainly an uncomfortable situation on Thursday for the 30-year-old batsman, who is the virtual direct replacement for De Villiers in the 2019 World Cup.
However, Van der Dussen acquitted himself well, saying that he too believed that he was capable of winning games for his country.
Questions around the De Villiers saga were well directed at Van der Dussen on Thursday, but he offered a straight bat in return.
“It’s not necessarily your best question to ask me, because I am involved in it, and had he not retired it would have influenced me directly. You can’t, on the day before when the squad has been working for longer than a year, come and say you want to make a comeback now.
“I’m not saying that he was wrong or right, but it would have set a difficult precedent, not necessarily a wrong one, because he is still one of the best batsmen in the world.
“I just think it was maybe handled not in the correct way from his side. I believe that Ottis and Faf gave him opportunities to manage his workloads going into the World Cup because they wanted him to play the World Cup.
“He had a fair chance to manage that, and he said ‘no’ and that he was happy to retire, and that’s fair enough. Faf accepted it and Ottis accepted it and they stood by it.”
