© Associated Press
South Africa coach Ottis Gibson wants the focus to turn from AB de Villiers back to the cricket, as his team prepares to take on West Indies in a game they really cannot afford to lose. Speaking in Southampton on Saturday, Gibson was clearly not happy to entertain too many questions on de Villiers.
“Personally I suspect there are a lot of people wanting AB to be here [more] than AB himself,” Gibson said. “If he wanted to be here he would be here.”
During the course of the press conference, he went on to say: “Are we going to talk about this all the time? Or are we going to prepare for the West Indies game.” He also said: “Feels like its a court case here.”
On Thursday, ESPNcricinfo reported that de Villiers had offered to come out of retirement to play the World Cup, just a day before the squad was named. The team management turned de Villiers down since he did fulfil the selection criteria – playing domestic and international cricket in the months leading up to the World Cup – and they felt picking him would be unfair on the players who had been performing in his absence. De Villiers had retired from international cricket in May 2018, saying he was tired.
South Africa have begun World Cup 2019 with three losses in a row, and they would need to win most of their remaining six games to have a realistic chance of progressing to the semi-finals. Gibson said of the situation: “I can’t recall in recent history a team picking a guy that’s retired.”
“Nobody’s shaken up, nobody’s died or anything… When we played in South Africa we won eight of the last 10 games… You guys [the media] weren’t asking those questions then.”
He said he hoped the players picked in de Villiers’ absence would take this opportunity to show their mettle and that they deserved to be at the World Cup. “I would want them to flip it the other way and show everyone that they deserve to be here.
“It’s only us that can change it [perceptions]… We can talk about AB all we want but he’s not here and he cannot help us. Only we can help us.
“We have to keep believing in ourselves and in the people who are here to do well in the tournament.”
More to follow
Sharda Ugra is senior editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo