AB de Villiers bid adieu to international cricket with immediate effect on Wednesday. The South African made the shocking announcement on his official social media accounts.
ABD said that he was 'tired' and that he felt it was the right time for him to give the next crop of Proteas cricketers an opportunity to play at the highest level.
“I have decided to retire from all international cricket with immediate effect,” he said on Wednesday. “After 114 Test matches, 228 ODI’s and 78 T20 Internationals, it is time for others to take over. I have had my turn, and to be honest, I am tired. This is a tough decision, I have thought long and hard about it and I’d like to retire while still playing decent cricket. After the fantastic series wins against India and Australia, now feels like the right time to step aside."
Here's his statement
While there was a unanimous outpour of love for the legend on Twitter, there were some fans who were disappointed that ABD dind't stick around till the 2019 ICC World Cup in England. South Africa have never won the prize tournament, and fans felt that De Villiers would've been the best bet to correct this.
Here are some tweets
ABD's records and statistics are a true measure of the skill and brilliance he brought to the crease. He holds a phenomenal number of milestones to his name; the World Record for the fastest ODI 50 (16 balls), 100 (31 balls) and 150 (64 balls), the second highest individual Test score for South Africa (278*), the highest points (935) by a South African on the ICC Test rankings and has claimed the coveted SA Cricketer of the Year award twice (2014 and 2015).
He retires with an incredible Test average of 50.66 and as the fourth-highest run-scorer for South Africa with 8765 runs (22 100’s). His exploits in the limited-overs formats have been extraordinary, and he finishes as the No.2 ranked player in the world and as the second highest run-scorer behind Jacques Kallis with 9577 runs at an average of 53.50.
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 "AB de Villiers")
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