Former South African skipper AB de Villiers has disapproved the reports which suggested he was approached to lead the national team by Cricket South Africa (CSA). A TV channel, on Wednesday, quoted ABD as saying that the Proteas board has made an offer to captain the team once again.
Taking to microblogging website Twitter, De Villiers informed that reports which suggested that he will lead the Proteas side again are false.
“Reports suggesting Cricket SA have asked me to lead the Proteas are just not true. It’s hard to know what to believe these days,” tweeted the 36-year-old.
Reports suggesting Cricket SA have asked me to lead the Proteas are just not true. It's hard to know what to believe these days. Crazy times. Stay safe everyone.
— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) April 29, 2020
The dextrous batsman retired from all forms of international cricket in 2018. Still, ever since his retirement, there has been constant talk of the possibility of his return to the national team.
Popular sports channel, Star Sports via its ‘Cricket Connected’ show released a press note, which quoted De Villiers as saying that he has “been asked by Cricket South Africa to lead the Proteas again.” It also said that De Villiers believed he would only make a comeback if he feels that he is good enough to play at the international level.
“The most important thing to me is that I have got to be in top form and I have got to be better than the player next to me. If I feel I deserve my spot in the side, it becomes much easier for me to feel that I should be part of the playing XI,” he said as quoted in the press release.
Earlier, South Africa coach Mark Boucher had said that De Villiers would be considered in the national team for the T20 World Cup scheduled to take place in Australia later this year only if the Northern player shows good form and proves himself to be the “best man for the job”.
De Villiers has led South Africa in 103 ODIs which made him the third-highest Proteas captain after Hansie Cronje (149) and Graeme Smith (138). When it comes to the shortest format, then the genius player has led the team in 18 T20I games which is also the third-highest after Faf Du Plessis (37) and Smith (27).
Overall, De Villiers has featured in 420 international matches for South Africa, in which the modern-great batsman piled up 20,014 runs.
