AB: Maybe. Or maybe not …

“It was very hurtful for me last year when people thought I assumed there was a place for me.” – AB de Villiers

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

IF AB de Villiers plays for South Africa again, thank Mark Boucher. If he doesn’t, curse the coronavirus pandemic that has cast into doubt his mooted comeback at this year’s currently scheduled T20 World Cup.

In an interview with Afrikaans-language Sunday newspaper Rapport, De Villiers was quoted as saying, “I could write a book on ‘Bouchie’s impact just on my life, nevermind cricket. I rediscovered that when I played under him at the Spartans [in the Mzansi Super League] in December. He was born to be an instructor. When he talks there’s respect.”

De Villiers played in 176 of Boucher’s 461 matches for South Africa across the formats. When Boucher’s career was ended by an eye injury in Taunton in July 2012, during the first game of South Africa’s tour to England, De Villiers — long since a regular batter in the Test XI and already the white-ball wicketkeeper and captain — replaced him behind the stumps in whites.  

Boucher’s appointment as South Africa’s coach was announced two days before last year’s MSL final in Paarl on December 16, when the Rocks won by eight wickets despite De Villiers’ 37-ball 51 for the Spartans.

By then, Boucher had spoken about to De Villiers about rescinding the decision he revealed to a shocked cricket world in May 2018, when, at 34, he walked away from the international arena.

“‘Bouch’ asked me why don’t I give it another go,” De Villiers said. “He said ‘guys like us who love cricket want you there’, and it was very good to hear that. I’ve always said to him, ‘I’ve never not wanted to be there. I’ve always wanted to be there. It’s just, my life has changed’. The situation I’m in is that it isn’t just about me and my cricket dreams anymore. I have a family now and a bunch of other things play a role: my health, how much I can play in a year and how much I can tour.”

The T20 World Cup in Australia in November and December glints on the horizon as an apt stage for De Villiers coming back. But he was mindful of avoiding a repeat of the debacle that unfolded during last year’s 50-over World Cup in England after reports emerged that his casually expressed offer to come back had been rejected. Cricket South Africa said the selectors heard of De Villiers’ proposal on the same day the squad was announced, by which time he had taken himself out of the running by not being available for South Africa’s matches before the tournament.

“I am uncertain about giving a definite answer because I have been very hurt and burned in the past,” Rapport quoted De Villiers as saying. “Then people will again think I have turned my back on our country. I can’t just walk into the team. Like every other player, I have to work for my place and deserve it. It was very hurtful for me last year when people thought I assumed there was a place for me. I feel available and I will give it a go with everything I have, but I don’t want special treatment.”

The coronavirus outbreak, which has forced the cancellation or postponement of many events, has added to the uncertainty surrounding De Villiers’ possible return. The T20 World Cup remains on the schedule, but with much of the world in lockdowns that are being extended — including in South Africa — prospects of sport resuming in the next few months are fast receding.

“I can’t see six months into the future,” De Villiers said. “If the tournament is postponed to next year a whole lot of things will change.” Part of what could be different is De Villiers’ fitness — he has a chronic back condition that has taken him off the field in the past. “At the moment I feel available, but at the same time I don’t know how my body will see it and if I will be healthy at that time.”

With little or no gametime likely before the tournament, preparing properly will be a challenge. “If I am 100% as good as I want to be, then I will be available,” De Villiers said. “But if I am not I won’t open myself up to that because I am not the type of person who does things at 80%. Then I have to do trials and show ‘Bouchie’ I’m still good enough. They should choose me because I’m really better than the guy next to me. I’ve never been the type of person who felt I should get just what I wanted.”

About all that can be confirmed about De Villiers pulling on South Africa’s green and gold kit again is that the issue remains unresolved: “I’m terribly afraid to say now yes, I’m available. And then in six months my whole life has changed as a result of the virus, or other uncertainties around the world, and I have to withdraw. Then a lot of people will be angry with me again. And even if [the T20 World Cup] is not postponed, I last played cricket in January and may not be able to play for the next three months.

“My situation could change and I might get to a point where I have to tell ‘Bouch’ I was interested I would like to play a role but I’m not going to be able to play myself. I’m afraid of such a commitment and creating false hope.”

Too late: if De Villiers doesn’t play for South Africa again might he be part of their coaching staff?

First published by Cricbuzz.

Philander slams CSA suits

“As a player you get to the point where you’ve had enough. We were the last thing they worried about.” – Vernon Philander explains the role the CSA shambles played in his decision to retire.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

CRICKET South Africa (CSA) have been damned by Vernon Philander, who has blamed the suits at least partly for his retirement last month, for the downward spiral in South Africa’s performances, and for forcing him to play in the 2015 World Cup semi-final despite his own doubts over his selection.

Philander made his comments in an interview with Rapport, an Afrikaans-language Sunday newspaper. But they were published internationally for the first time on Wednesday — the same day CSA’s board and members council will meet with all eyes on what they are going to do to halt cricket’s slide into debt, mismanagement, and alarming governance practices. CSA’s shoddy performance is being reflected on the field, where the men’s national team have lost 13 of their 19 completed matches in all formats since the start of last year’s World Cup — including eight of their last nine Tests.

“As a player you get to the point where you’ve had enough,” Philander was quoted as saying. “CSA’s previous management started thinking only of themselves; the players were the last people they worried about. Too many things have gone wrong recently. I had to decide what is the best way forward for me. I’m already [almost] 35 with a good career behind me, but I would have considered playing for longer if it wasn’t for the chaos in our cricket administration.

“The last thing that should happen is that the players are influenced negatively. Luckily there is credibility in CSA again. Hopefully we see a turnaround in the administration and on the field. We must put our heads together and decide in what direction we’re going. Hopefully we can make the road ahead better for the younger guys.” 

In December CSA suspended controversial chief executive Thabang Moroe and appointed the trusted Jacques Faul to succeed him in an acting capacity. In January Graeme Smith came aboard as acting director of cricket with Mark Boucher named head coach and Jacques Kallis and Charl Langeveldt as his batting and bowling consultants. But that didn’t make enough of a difference where it mattered: South Africa won the first Test against England at Centurion in December but lost the other three, and then blew a lead in the drawn ODI series. Were Smith, Boucher and Kallis the answer? “It depends on their management style, because as a player you approach the game very differently than as a coach. We’ll see how they adjust.”

Philander was inadvertently central to one of the most infamous episodes in South Africa’s history in March 2015, when CSA ordered the inclusion of another player of colour in the XI for the World Cup semi-final against New Zealand at Eden Park. The side included only three such players; one fewer than then recommended by the transformation policy. Because of a hamstring injury Philander had played in only three of South Africa’s other seven games in the tournament. But he was pressganged into action at the expense of Kyle Abbott — the team’s best bowler at the event in terms of average, economy rate and strike rate. Philander, clearly some way short of match fit, left the field after bowling eight ineffectual overs for 52. The game was won off the last ball when Grant Elliott launched Dale Steyn down the ground, and the toll exacted by the administrators’ damaging interference was immediately apparent as most of South Africa’s players collapsed to earth emotionally exhausted.

Almost five years on the unhappy saga is still with Philander: “I told the coach [Russell Domingo] blatantly and openly that the best player should play. He told me: ‘You are the best guy for the day, you play’. They weren’t clear an honest with me and Kyle. Lots of stuff definitely happened behind closed doors. When I go to Durban, Kyle and I have a beer. There are no hard feelings between the two of us. But the point is CSA must sort out their issues. What happened there gave both of us a bit of a knock.”

Philander hinted at more meddling from above during the 2019 World Cup, where South Africa finished seventh out of 10 teams: “The administrators were too involved with the game and the players. It was also easier to target Ottis [Gibson, then the coach]. He’s a foreigner, so they could instruct him, ‘Do this, do that’.” Reports were rife that Moroe, then still CSA’s chief executive, had demanded a greater say in team selection.

Somerset have signed Philander as a Kolpak player for this year’s county season. Then what? Smith has made a strong case for retaining his skills in South Africa’s system, but CSA would seem far from securing Philander as a coach: “In successful teams like Australia, England and India former players stay involved. You learn from the older guys’ example and experience. South Africa loses their former players to other countries, where the go and coach. The money is much better. We must decide what we are prepared to pay former players to keep them in the country and ensure that our cricket goes forward again. We have a great need for that now than ever before.”

Philander’s career of 64 Tests, in which he took 224 wickets at 22.32, ended less than happily in the fourth Test at the Wanderers, where England won by 191 runs with a day to spare. He left the field with another hamstring problem after bowling only nine balls in the second innings, and his last act as an international was to hobble out to bat. By then the ICC had taken a dim view of his verbal send-off of Jos Buttler in the first innings — a reprisal for Buttler calling Philander a “fucking knobhead” during the second Test at Newlands.

“I knew there was a microphone behind me; he was dumb enough not to know that,” Philander said of the Newlands incident. What was his retort to Buttler at the Wanderers? “Your game is not good enough; you shouldn’t even be here.”

You could say a lot about Vernon Philander as a Test bowler. But not that.

First published by Cricbuzz.