AB de Villiers expected to retire from tests

[Black_Warrior]

He didn't lose the captaincy, he was the Test captain, and before he decided to go on a sabbatical, SA board and captain Du Plessis confirmed without an iota of doubt that AB was captain and he was supposed to take over for the Sri Lanka series last year.

And yes there are a lot of different factors behind AB's retirement. But the fact remains that he picked a format. If he were to retire altogether from cricket, then you could point to political issues with CSA and other external factors. He chose the format he was retiring from and over the course of the next few months when South Africa play England, India and Australia, one of the game's best players, while being fit will not be in action for those major series.

Surely this does not reflect "test cricket is doing great' whatever the factors might be behind AB's retirement. All those factors mentioned above led to AB wanting to cut down on his games. But when he goes and chooses the format, you cannot say 'it has nothing to do with test cricket'

 

[StephenZA]

Surely this does not reflect "test cricket is doing great' whatever the factors might be behind AB's retirement. All those factors mentioned above led to AB wanting to cut down on his games. But when he goes and chooses the format, you cannot say 'it has nothing to do with test cricket'

He chose the LO format because winning a WC for SA is more important to him, combined with wanting to avoid long test tours away from his family. Nothing to do with the state of test cricket.

 

[srbhkshk]

I think at least for SA, it is actually the right call to prefer an ODI WC over test match wins, they routinely beat Aus in Aus and except for the last series they have been very impressive in India as well and those two are basically the final frontiers of test cricket, no one can question them as a test team, but they have to remove the C tag in major ODIs and I think it is fair (or at least not a clear cut wrong) decision of ABD to concentrate on that.

 

[honestbharani]

I see the predictable reaction to ABDV’s likely retirement from Tests being ‘Test Cricket is doomed!’ but they’re acting like he’s giving up on playing Tests when he’s in his early-mid 20s and only played a dozen or so Tests.

I was really surprised when I checked his Test career and he’s played 106 Tests; that’s even more than someone like Adam Gilchrist played (who never missed a Test through injury during his career).

He’s had a lengthy and substantial Test career individually and has been part of a Test side that has won pretty much everywhere and beaten everyone. What’s there left to achieve in that format?

Sure, it would be preferable for him to continue for a couple more years but the reaction from the likes of Mike Brearley and Brendon McCullum going for the tried and true “Test cricket is in crisis” is pretty misguided based on ABDV.

B Mac extolling the virtues of test cricket over T20

 

[Burgey]

I think at least for SA, it is actually the right call to prefer an ODI WC over test match wins, they routinely beat Aus in Aus and except for the last series they have been very impressive in India as well and those two are basically the final frontiers of test cricket, no one can question them as a test team, but they have to remove the C tag in major ODIs and I think it is fair (or at least not a clear cut wrong) decision of ABD to concentrate on that.

I can understand your thinking and it's going to be a matter of personal preference, but I could never think that way.

 

[Burgey]

He didn't lose the captaincy, he was the Test captain, and before he decided to go on a sabbatical, SA board and captain Du Plessis confirmed without an iota of doubt that AB was captain and he was supposed to take over for the Sri Lanka series last year.

And yes there are a lot of different factors behind AB's retirement. But the fact remains that he picked a format. If he were to retire altogether from cricket, then you could point to political issues with CSA and other external factors. He chose the format he was retiring from and over the course of the next few months when South Africa play England, India and Australia, one of the game's best players, while being fit will not be in action for those major series.

Surely this does not reflect "test cricket is doing great' whatever the factors might be behind AB's retirement. All those factors mentioned above led to AB wanting to cut down on his games. But when he goes and chooses the format, you cannot say 'it has nothing to do with test cricket'

Naturally playing for five days straight will put a lot more physical and mental pressure on a player than a T20/ ODI every three-four days. He's had some injury issues which have probably factored into his decision as well.

 

[Black_Warrior]

He chose the LO format because winning a WC for SA is more important to him, combined with wanting to avoid long test tours away from his family. Nothing to do with the state of test cricket.

The IPL runs for almost 3 months and apart from the one season in 2009, I doubt we will see any IPL seasons being played in South Africa any time soon.

He will still be away from his family for long periods - he is just making a very clear choice which makes it very clear which format is more attractive to players who are looking to make that choice

 

[Burner]

Long tour in the sense that it's test cricket I think. Much more gruelling on the body unlike the IPL even though they go on for the same period.

 

[honestbharani]

T20 games end in 3 to 4 hours, test matches go on for like 7 (including breaks in both cases). And you have to play every day for 5 days, unlike IPl when you have game like once in 3 days and maybe 2 games a week.

 

[Black_Warrior]

^ Right. That just demonstrates my point. More and more players are going to cite that when making their choice..which suggests that Test Cricket might not be the number 1 format you just have to play for a lot of cricketers.

 

[honestbharani]

You may well be right but the cases in point would be some of the Windies players etc. AB definitely loved playing tests and is only giving it up now for a variety of reasons which seem much more legitimate than with a few others who have chosen something similar in recent times. Basically, I agree with your broader point but I just dont think AB is the best example for it.

 

[Furball]

I still think he's been nudged by politics. I don't think he'd be chucking it if he was any other nationality.

 

[91Jmay]

See he is currently tweeting about The Voice whilst his 'teammates' were at Lords playing a Test match. Great leadership and champion spirit shown.

Retire and stop being so selfish, so you can go and chase more $ in some meaningless T20 tournament.

 

[vcs]

What is The Voice?

Yesterday in the first session, he was tweeting about the Test match and said he thinks SA can win after the first session collapse by England. *




* I know this not because I follow him on Twitter but because his tweets showed up on cricinfo's Twitter thingy on the scorecard page

 

[91Jmay]

Yeah he was tweeting throughout about the Test as well, which is probably nearly as helpful as bothering to play to be fair to him. Oh well, at least he turned out for the crucial T20 series before the Tests

 

[honestbharani]

Jmay sounds more bitter about AB not playing the tests than even the RSA fans. I do recall him giving interviews the last time they toured England that he is willing to do a job for the team as a keeper even it it meant it took a year or two off his career. And now that we are almost there, we are now complaining that he is a selfish guy. Wonderful.

 

[Bahseph]

To be fair to him I think the Voice aired after the cricket was over here in SA ?. Still wish he was in whites, no matter how we justify it.

 

[StephenZA]

To be fair to him I think the Voice aired after the cricket was over here in SA . Still wish he was in whites, no matter how we justify it.

It was during the dying throes of the match....



Wicket-keeping definitely reduced his career. Consistently had back issues since.

 

[Bijed]

91Jmay might just be marking down AB simply for caring about The Voice, rather than the timing of the tweets. An entirely reasonable viewpoint to take if so

 

[Spark]

Jmay sounds more bitter about AB not playing the tests than even the RSA fans. I do recall him giving interviews the last time they toured England that he is willing to do a job for the team as a keeper even it it meant it took a year or two off his career. And now that we are almost there, we are now complaining that he is a selfish guy. Wonderful.

I think it's perfectly reasonable for fans to be disappointed that a player of ABdV's calibre has decided to place Test cricket as a lower priority for whatever reason, though probably doing it in this thread is a bit much