South Africa rejected AB de Villiers’ offer to come out of retirement for World Cup swansong

South African great AB de Villiers had offered to come out of retirement in order to play in the ongoing World Cup, a request that was quickly rebuffed by the South African team management, according to an ESPNCricInfo report.

The offer to rejoin the South African team was made just 24 hours before the team for the World Cup was set to be announced. The former captain had communicated his desire to return to South Africa’s captain Faf du Plessis, head coach Ottis Gibson and convenor of selectors Linda Zondi.

According to the report, the team management turned down the proposal for two major reasons.

De Villiers who retired in May 2018 was out of action in international as well as domestic cricket for over a year and thus didn’t fulfill the criteria for selection. The team management also believed that De Villiers’ late selection would be unfair on the other players who had performed well in his absence over the past year.