AB de Villiers Not A Part of The IPL 2022 For Only One Major Reason, Opens Up on Decision to Retire

Former South African captain AB de Villiers opened up on his decision to retire from all forms of cricket and opting out of the mega IPL auctions which is scheduled to take place in the month of February.

New Delhi: Former South African captain AB de Villiers opened up on his decision to retire from all forms of cricket and thereby opting out of the mega IPL auctions which is scheduled to take place in the month of February. While acknowledging the fact that cricketing wise it was always on the cards but Covid made it difficult for him to continue since the enjoyment was not there anymore.

“Cricketing wise, it has been coming for quite some time, it’s always been about enjoyment for me. And the minute where I felt the difficulty of travelling and being there at the IPL for two and half to three months a year, specifically with this one that was spilt into two, bubbles and this and that made things very complicated with regards to cricket and the enjoyment thereof,” said de Villiers in a chat with TimesLive.

Stressing on the fact that, he always played the game because he enjoyed it, de Villiers said that he has never been the guy who would push every single bit of his energy on his cricketing skills.

“I found myself on the park where scoring runs and doing well for the team didn’t really match with everything that goes with it anymore and that is where the balance started leading towards hanging my gloves up. I have never been the guy who is going to push every single bit of energy of my ability and my cricketing skill, I have always played for the enjoyment of the game. And the minute that sort of started going down, I knew it was time for me to move on,” de Villiers added.