Why has AB de Villiers Retired?

Anyone who knows the man in question would be asking themselves the same question as the title of this article – ‘Why has AB de Villiers retired from all forms of international cricket?’ For those who have watched him bat recently or even throughout his career would know that he bats with a fluency that not many others in the world can. His fielding has saved as many runs as maybe only the legendary Jonty Rhodes could have saved. Why them, has he announced his retirement?

The world was hit with complete shock and astonishment when, just 3 hours back today, the former South African cricket captain AB de Villiers released a video across social media to announce a big decision in his life. What was that decision? Retiring from all forms of international cricket, with immediate effect.

We have always known ABD to be an extremely humble, down to earth and god-fearing individual and no matter how many times in his career he broke records and won matches that not many others would be able to, he would just smile and carry on like it was just another day in the office. He is one of very few cricketers who have come to India each year and had stadiums all over the country chanting ‘ABD, ABD, ABD…’ each time he walked out to bat in the Indian Premier League.

It’s mixed emotions for ABD fans across the world. Not just are they (including me) extremely sad and heartbroken that he will never be seen playing in South African colours again, but they are also angry that he has bowed out without giving them a chance to watch him play in a farewell test, farewell ODI or farewell T20I. Just like that, his international career is all over. 78 T20Is, 228 ODIs and 114 Tests for South Africa, and those numbers will not increase 🙂

Retirement is a big decision in any sportsman’s lives and we wish ABD the very best of luck in whatever else he chooses to do in his life from here on. Of course, we expect him to play in the IPL for a few more years, as the 34-year old is still the most athletic cricketers going around. Cricket fans will certainly miss their ‘Superman’, or ‘Mr.360’, as he is called. He recently had a brilliant IPL 2018 where he signed off with three consecutive fifties and took the catch of the IPL!

“I demand a DNA test of AB de Villiers. This game is only for humans.” – Aakash Chopra
“AB de Villiers is the definition of a cricketing genius.” – Michael Vaughan
“AB de Villiers is changing the rules of the game.” – Rahul Dravid
“AB de Villiers is the best batsman in the world and he shows it again and again.” – Virat Kohli
“Someone I have always watched and looked up to, he’s a class act and someone I try to base my cricket on.” – Glenn Maxwell

Easily, he is one of the most loved cricketers in the world, and international cricket will miss this living legend. Good luck to South Africa now, who will have to face the ICC 2019 World Cup without AB de Villiers. I’m not even going to start mentioning the tremendous number of records that he has broken throughout his international career, as that would just occupy an excessive amount of space on this blog. Today we know that all good things have to come to an end. Thank you AB de Villiers!

Check out the emotional video he posted on social media to announce his retirement:

Coming back to my question. ABD said he was ‘tired’ and would like to retire while still playing ‘decent cricket’. Pretty obviously, he was much better than the word decent and my English isn’t good enough to find adjectives to describe this sportsman. According to you, what would be the reason that Abraham Bejamin de Villiers has chosen to retire? How do you feel about this decision? Comment and let us know.

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