South African great wants AB de Villiers to give up captaincy for the better

Lots of speculations have been emerging concerning the future of AB de Villiers in international cricket. The 33-year-old headed home after another series defeat at the hands of England, this time in the T20 Internationals. They were even outplayed by the Poms in the One Dayers.

After a disastrous Champions Trophy campaign where South Africa were defeated by both India and Pakistan to be shown the way out of the tournament, there was much of a backlash at home. While there is a Test series in England to be played shortly, it won’t feature AB de Villiers who has taken a break from the rigours of playing all the formats.

This hasn’t gone down well with some of the renowned former players who have criticised the modern day great for it. Former South African great Barry Richards remarked that the de Villiers thing had escalated and it is time he should step down from captaincy before it’s too late. “It’s become a bigger issue than it should have been. It should have been managed a lot better a long time ago,” added Richards.

Faf du Plessis who was expected to miss the Lord’s Test due to the birth of his child might as well make it in time, since he got the good news today and still has a week in hand before the series gets underway on July 6.

Faf should lead in all formats

Richards further went on to say that there was no reason why Faf du Plessis couldn’t be the skipper in all three formats.

“I think AB is up to here with cricket, I think he’d like to go the independent contractor route,” explained Richards. “He’s got a young family, he’s away a lot. If he wants to continue playing for South Africa he should give away the captaincy and concentrate on his batting,” the 71-year-old said.

“He’s a wonderful player but in the last few months I don’t think we’ve seen the best of him,” he added.

With AB de Villiers stating that he might be making a decision about his future and also sounding keen to represent the Proteas in World Cup 2019, there is a strong sense that he might be contemplating retirement from Tests as soon as in August.