I truly love captaining - AB
AB de Villiers wants to continue as the long-term Proteas Test captain, and says he will “throw my name into the hat” for the job.
|||Cape Town - AB de Villiers wants to continue as the long-term Proteas Test captain, saying that he will “throw my name into the hat” for the job.
There has been a lot of speculation around De Villiers’s future in the longer format of the game after he expressed concerns about his heavy workload and perhaps not playing in some formats going forward.
There was also a newspaper report a few weeks ago which claimed that the 31-year-old was going to quit five-day cricket so that he could play in more of the lucrative Twenty20 franchise tournaments around the world.
Soon after that, Hashim Amla resigned as the skipper following the draw at Newlands, with De Villiers being appointed for the two remaining matches in Johannesburg and Centurion.
But on Thursday at SuperSport Park, where the fourth and final Test against England will start on Friday, De Villiers was unequivocal about his Proteas plans. The English already wrapped up a 2-0 series triumph at the Wanderers last week.
“I thoroughly enjoyed it. I truly love captaining - I’ve grown into enjoying it. The first few years were a bit tough, but I am really enjoying it now. It’s a whole different feel, Test-match cricket, but you have a lot of time to express yourself and try things out,” De Villiers said at a press conference on Thursday.
“Obviously I can improve in quite a few areas, and we can start off by maybe winning the game! When you win, there is always a lot of praise, but when you lose games, people start asking questions – questioning captaincy ability, your line-up, your balance. A lot of questions being asked.
“But I thoroughly enjoyed it. I don’t think I made a hell of a lot of mistakes, bar one or two here or there. I’m looking forward to the next few. I am committed for this series – I tried to make that clear at the start of the last Test match. Obviously we will have a nice discussion with the CEO (Haroon Lorgat), with some of the selectors, to find out exactly where we are going to go with this.
“I am pretty keen to move forward and to have a big role to play in the next few games – that’s why I said a few games, and not just the next one. I am pretty keen, but it’s not solely my decision. I will throw my name in the hat, and hopefully it comes my way.”
The Proteas brainstrust and Cricket South Africa do have some time to ponder the future of the Test team and captaincy, as the next five-day series is scheduled for August, when New Zealand will visit South Africa for two games.
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ashfak.mohamed@inl.co.za
@IndyCapeSport