The AB saga needs to be put to bed ASAP
Here we go again, AB de Villiers will meet the national cricket bosses over his international future in August and we’re all suppose to hold our breath until then.
Frankly, I’m so gatvol of this never-ending saga that I simply couldn’t give a flying … saucer over what he decides. The Proteas have won their last four Test series without him anyway, while they have been woeful in England with him. The sooner therefore he quits the one-day side, the sooner the selectors can experiment with a long-term replacement.
But for now, while it remains anybody’s guess what the extent of his imminent decision will be, the current state can easily be misinterpreted as him “picking and choosing’’ as many fans believe. That is not fair on either party, but it’s very hard to draw any other conclusion. If he is to carry on playing Test cricket, what is the significance of a return in a home series against Bangladesh after the meeting? Why can’t he then just return now and get it over and done with?
The Test side face England in the first match at Lord’s next week with captain Faf du Plessis likely to miss out, leaving the Proteas in need of a top order batsman. Last time I checked De Villiers scored over 8 000 Test runs at an average of over 50, but instead the Proteas will have to rely on Theuns de Bruyn who has a single Test to his name.
To make matters worse, it’s not like De Villiers has other cricketing commitments over the next few months. If he could stick around for all those weeks during the one-day leg of the tour and even turn out for the very green T20 team, he could have at least offered to fill in for Faf at Lord’s. But he didn’t, indicating his lack of desire to carry on playing Tests.
So why do we even have to wait for two months and another meeting to get confirmation? His burning desire to win the World Cup is no secret, therefore it should actually be such an easy decision. He announces his retirement – the one that actually means finish and klaar – from Test cricket, making himself available for one-day selection. It’s not a new thing, as various players around the world have done this like for instance Indian superstar MS Dhoni.
Providing he stays fit and maintains form, he is available for all the Proteas’ one-day commitments over the next two years and turns out for his swansong at the World Cup in two years’ time.
That looks like his likely course of action and one that could have been done and dusted ages ago, but for some reason it has dragged on and turned into a confusing mess. One definitely not befitting of a man who has scored 45 centuries and 102 half-centuries for his country over more than a dozen years.
But let’s not forget about the passionate fans who have cheered for every one of those 18 996 international runs. Surely they deserve closure by now.
