Great That AB de Villiers Has Expressed His Desire To Be Back: Graeme Smith

Ab De Villiers earlier this month expressed his desire to return to the international fold after calling it quits in May 2018. The South African batting star is currently featuring for Brisbane Heat in Australia in the Big Bash League. And Cricket South Africa director Graeme Smith has implicated that the door is still not closed for the veteran to come back into the scheme of things.

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The 35-year old was one of the most experienced players in the South African setup and their camp received a big blow ahead of the 2019 World Cup due to his retirement. In the recent past, the Proteas have had many of their veterans hanging up their boots which have led to their underperformance. De Villiers also conveyed that he wants to make a comeback for the 2019 World Cup, but the move didn’t take place. Reportedly, Du Plessis was also keen in having De Villiers back in the team.

However, Smith didn’t completely rule out the possibility of the talented cricketer’s return for the T20 World Cup. While the former captain hasn’t firmly suggested his reappearance, he conceded that they are still considering the feasibilities and options. The 38-year old lauded De Villiers’ willingness to play for the national side and acknowledged that they would be silly not to even discuss roping in some free agents into their outfit, considering the West Indies have found success through the same.

“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. “

The West Indies have had success with some of those guys. We are looking at when those players who want to be part of that World Cup need to be part of the set-up. Post Indian Premier League we’ve got 11 to 14 T20 games before the World Cup. We’ve got a lot of cricket to build a squad.” Smith stated as quoted by timeslive.co.za

CSA director on appointing Quinton De Kock as the leader:

One of the burning questions since Tuesday is the sacking of Faf Du Plessis as the captain of the One-day side and instead handing over the reins to Quinton De Kock for the three-match ODI series against England. Graeme Smith addressed his appointment by saying that since Faf wouldn’t be around till 2023, they saw this as the best opportunity to blood the keeper-batsman and take the team forward to make it a successful one.

“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 an opportunity.” Smith added further.

South Africa are presently playing the Englishmen in the four-match Test series which they are trailing by 2-1. The fourth and the final Test will begin from the 24th of January in Johannesburg after which the two sides will meet in three ODIs and three T20Is.

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