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Former South Africa batsman AB de Villiers retired from all forms of cricket last year but his fans and cricket followers can surely expect to see the 37-year-old playing a bigger role in South Africa cricket.
He thinks that he has been grooming younger players for the last couple of years and his aim is to make a big difference in the lives of the players.
“I still believe that I have a role to play in SA cricket and also over there in the IPL with the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). I have no idea what will come next but I will take it one day at a time and see. I have been looking after and mentoring some youngsters with potential and ability for the last few years.
“No one knows about it and hopefully, I can look back one day in the future knowing that I have made a big difference in the lives of a few players. That is my focus for now and I don’t know if it’s going to be professional or on a casual basis, but we will see where we go with that,” de Villiers was quoted while talking to Sunday Times.
Retirement issue
De Villiers also spoke about the factors that led to his retirement.
"I found myself on the park where scoring runs and doing well for the team didn't really match with everything that goes with it anymore and that’s where the balance started leading towards hanging my gloves up," he explained.
"I have never been the guy who is going to push every single bit of energy of my ability and my cricketing skill, I have always played for the enjoyment of the game. And the minute that sort of started going down, I knew it was time for me to move on.”
Numbers in IPL
De Villiers scored 313 runs at an average of 31.30 in 15 matches he played for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 campaign.
Having scored 5,162 runs in 184 matches, the destructive batter remains sixth in the list of all-time run-scorers in the history of IPL. His strike-rate of 151.68 is the best among top 20 run-getters in the T20 event.
