AB de Villiers angry at SRH for captaincy swap between Aiden Markram and Pat Cummins; blames the Australians openly

AB de Villiers is seemingly disappointed with Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Daniel Vettori for the sacking of Aiden Markram as the franchise captain. The Vettori-led management announced Australia’s Test and ODI captain Pat Cummins as the one to lead the Orange Army for the 2024 season. De Villiers feels that this decision was somehow influenced by Aussie head coach Andrew McDonald who has Vettori in his national team management.

While speaking on his latest YouTube video, AB de Villiers made this claim about Daniel Vettori deliberately leading to Aiden Markram’s removal from captaincy. To put things into perspective, Vettori has been working with Pat Cummins as Australia’s assistant coach under McDonald’s regime since 2022. De Villers believes that the former Kiwi international appointed Cummins only on that basis.

ABD finding it tough to digest Aiden Markram’s SRH captaincy snub

The first Mr. 360 degree of cricket felt for his countryman Markram who recently led SRH’s sister franchise Sunrisers Eastern Cape towards their 2nd successive SA20 league title. ABD claimed that he was not that surprised by Cummins’ appointment as it was bound to happen since the CWC 2023 winner was bought for a record price of 20.50 crores.

“It’s quite a surprise, but not a big surprise to me, thinking of the involvement of Daniel Vettori, who was with the Australian team. Also, we might see some involvement with Andrew McDonald. You just see a bit of an Australian flavor coming into that Sunrisers Hyderabad team.” – AB de Villiers said via his latest YouTube video.

Before stating that SRH will have an evident Aussie connection, de Villiers had words of support for Aiden Markram who has gotten used to captaincy in the toughest T20 league. Markram was bought by the South Indian franchise for 2.6 Crores in the 2022 mega auction before handing him the captaincy for the 2023 season.

Hyderabad endured a forgettable season, finishing 10th in the points table which was also their 3rd consecutive finish at the bottom half of the league table. Markram himself had an average season of 248 runs from 13 matches after a 2022 season where he scored 381 in 14 matches.

AB de Villiers further stated that all South African fans are disappointed with Aiden Markram’s sacking but it was necessary from the team’s perspective.

“I think he’s a fantastic captain, and they were just getting used to him as captain there at the SRH. So, it is disappointing to me, to him, and to all South African fans, but if it is for the best of the SRH team, then so be it. – de Villiers concluded.

Sunrisers Hyderabad squad for IPL 2024