I think the South African Board did the right thing by not selecting de Villiers in the World Cup squad. Personally feel that he has been highly selfish if it is indeed true that he put himself up for selection at the very last moment, after having left the team in a precarious situation and having played a grand total of
zero List A games since his retirement. The
‘tired’ AbD himself who claimed that he had no plans to play overseas t20 leagues and hoped to be available for Titans in domestic cricket has also not played a single first class match either since he retired. And if he did receive the offer to plan his season ahead and only play in the home series’ versus Sri Lanka and Pakistan for him to be selected (with all due respect to them, neither should have been a huge challenge to South Africa, although Karunaratne had other ideas
) as claimed by the board, it makes his actions look even more strange. Wonder what the man himself has to respond to these, given that Kallis himself retired from tests to focus exclusively on ODIs towards the end of his career.
First of all, AB had retired from test match cricket, to focus on this ongoing WC. It's a dream that he has had shattered thrice in the past.
Do NOT forget, the 2015 which they should have won (they beat the world champions earlier in their own den) he as captain was forced to pick Philander in the semi final over an Abbott who had performed very well through the tournament and bowled an exceptional spell in the preceding quarter final.
Then, when Gibson becomes coach and under Du Plessis' leadership, they persuade him to come back to the test arena (foreshadowing his obvious requirement in two marquee series against India & Australia) and shed the leadership in limited overs to unburden him. He agrees and plays a pivotal role in both test series, easily being SA best batsman on tracks the world recognised as incredibly difficult.
After these series, he's injured and because of the desperately poor show against wrist spin is rushed back into the side. The alarm bells start to go off here. He requests to play the T20 leagues and be relieved off the meaningless bilateral series.
When the board tells him he must play against SL and PAK as they will act as the basis for being selected in the WC squad is where I believe the relationship between the board and him became terminal.
To be straight forward, I think AB is also to blame in part for this current situation but I think the share of blame majorly lies with the board. Why?
1) We as Indians, rightly so, hail Dravid's sacrifice to keep wickets for India as one of his great contributions. When Mark Boucher got injured, AB did the same. To stress on my point, he was for the longest time the Kohli & the Dhoni for South Africa. Now, at 35, after having established himself he rightfully expects to be treated differently. I ask you, do you know how many List A game MSD plays? None. He doesn't even play tests. AB had quit, but fell into the persuasions and if you follow his twitter and read his auto-biography, he's an emotional catholic and it will only take lines such as "answer the call for the rainbow nation." And from the "I'm tired" he can very quickly go to "I'm ready to play all three formats again." It's just who he is as a human being. I am pretty sure his desire to play the World Cup last moment has to do with having one last crack at his dream and the general feeling that "his country needs him." I am sure his best friends i.e Faf and Dale have been in his ear.
2) The next criticism will be why play the T20 leagues and not the bilateral? He's after money! Sorry, but how many West Indians like Gayle & Russell to sight an example play all year for WI? Did the SA players playing the IPL not harm their World Cup preparations? Do the likes of Dhoni & Kohli need to play in other T20 leagues around the world considering their central contracts and immensely lucrative sponsorship deals? For heaven's sake, Ravi Shastri's central contract was about as lucrative as that of Steve Smith's when he was captain of Australia. The English captain, followed by Bangladesh cricketers made more off their central contracts than the best South African cricketer.
3) Most importantly, is Ab de Villiers still good enough to be part of this line up?
YES! Just look at England's selection of Jofra Archer and the ditching of David Wiley. Is it unfair? Perhaps. Is it necessary? Absolutely. Mitchell Starc has played less than 10 ODI's since the CT 2017. He is compensated by CA for not participating in the IPL. Can CSA do so? No. I think it's extremely rich for a board to have a system whereby a certain number of players have to be selected on the basis of the colour of your skin and then have any sort of moral high ground pertaining to the basis of selection.
I don't think the results would have been drastically different with him in the side. Cricket tournaments, specially tournaments of such stature are won by teams and not individuals. He would have provided SA with some sparkling moments and given them a better shot at it, but that's about it. As for AB? I think that semi final at Eden Park will always hurt me and more so him. He might shrug a shoulder and say 'no regrets' but his eyes and his manner of speaking reveal a lot of hurt to this day. It changed him and basically from that moment on, he lost all faith in his cricket board. I think an IPL trophy would not heal the wounds, but perhaps would be a half decent adieu to what can only be described as an absolutely fantastic career and an even better bloke.
