First published in Wisden Cricket Monthly in June 2018, columnist and Sri Lanka legend Kumar Sangakkara was disappointed that AB de Villiers decided to quit international cricket during his peak but understood where the urge came from.
This article was first published in issue 8 of Wisden Cricket Monthly magazine. Subscribe here
It was something of a shock that AB de Villiers chose this moment to call time on his international career. As he has shown in this year’s IPL, and in the Test series against Australia that preceded it, he is as good now as at any other point in his career.
But having watched him over recent years, it felt like this time was coming. There had been hints of it in the past. There had been suggestions that he wanted to step away after the last World Cup, when South Africa lost so harrowingly in the semi-final. But even when he made the final announcement last month, no one really wanted to hear that news.
There has to be a clear purpose when you’re playing for your country, and you can all too easily end up in a slow, prolonged, agonising end to your career, when you’ve lost that sense of purpose. It’s better to go out when you still have the ability to dictate terms.
