Chaos in South African management hastened my decision to retire, reveals Vernon Philander

One of the most potent wicket-takers for the South African team in the Test matches, Vernon Philander called time on his international career after the fourth Test match against England last month. This brought an end to a career that began in 2007 and he played a big role in his team’s many Test wins.

However, after his retirement, the medium-pacer has revealed that the chaos in the team management and administration hastened his decision to call time on his career. He specifically pointed out the incident where despite being half-fit, he was chosen over Kyle Abbott in the semi-final of the 2015 World Cup against New Zealand. This led to widespread criticism of South Africa’s policies of racial quota, especially after the team was knocked out.

It also resulted in Kyle Abbott choosing the Kolpak route and is now making records in English county circuit, while South Africa regret letting some of the best players going that route due to a rigid transformation policy. Philander revealed that problems in Cricket South Africa’s administration, suspension of chief executive Thabang Moroe and calls for the board to resign, resulted in him deciding to quit the game for good.

‘You get to the point where you’ve had enough’: Vernon Philander

“As a player, you get to the point where you’ve had enough. CSA’s former management only started looking after themselves, the players were the last ones they worried about. Too many things went wrong in the last while, I had to decide what is the best road ahead for me.

Then I decided to retire. I am 35 now, with a decent career behind me, but I would have considered playing longer if not for the chaos in our cricket administration,” Philander was quoted as saying in the Afrikaans-language newspaper Rapport.

However, he was hopeful for a bright future for the country’s cricket with the major changes in administration in which former captain Graeme Smith became the first CSA director of cricket. Philander also touched upon the controversial decision to drop an in-form Kyle Abbott for the 2015 World Cup semi-final and pick Philander, who had struggled with fitness.

“I blatantly and openly told the coach (Russell Domingo) that the best player should play. He told me: ‘You are the best player for the day, you’re playing. But they were clearly not open and honest with me and Kyle. There were definitely things going on behind closed doors,” Philander reveals.

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