Now, Shaun Pollock speaks out on AB de Villiers controversy

The controversy over the rejection of former South Africa batsman AB de Villiers’ plea for a return to the national side for the World Cup refuses to die down. While the South African selection panel said it was helpless about accommodating the 35-year-old despite his dashing records since it was far too late and also because the cricketer hadn’t fulfilled the selection conditions.

Although the fans have supported ABD on this issue, former cricketers like Shoaib Akhtar wasn’t impressed and even accused the batsman of prioritising money over the country. ABD played in various franchise cricket tournaments since quitting international cricket in May last year.

Former South Africa Shaun Pollock now has also come out speaking on the matter and according to him, if de Villiers had offered to play for the Proteas just when the final squad was set to be announced, it would have disrupted things from the team’s perspective. It has been reported that de Villiers approached the team management to allow him in the side barely a day ahead of the announcement of the final squad in April and according to the selectors, it was far too late by then.

ABD should have spoken up a little earlier, feels Pollock

“If it did come just as the (World Cup) team was about to be announced, that’s quite disruptive from a team perspective,” Pollock, who is doing commentary for the World Cup, was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

“If we do find out he was available, maybe he should have spoken up a little earlier. That would have been good.”

It was learnt that de Villiers, who had led South Africa to the semi-final of the 2015 World Cup, had approached current captain Faf du Plessis and coach Ottis Gibson after the conclusion of the Indian Premier League in which he played decently for Royal Challengers Bangalore captained by India captain Virat Kohli.

Linda Zondi, the convener of the Proteas selection panel, also said that a sudden inclusion of de Villiers would have done injustice to players who have come up in the meantime and deserved an opportunity to play in the World Cup.

“The decision was based on principle; we had to be fair to the team, the selection panel, our franchise system and players,” Zondi had said.

South Africa has failed to impress in the tournament so far as they lost to England, Bangladesh and India in their first three encounters and are in danger of an early exit from the race for the semi-finals.