De Villiers Left It Too Late For World Cup Inclusion: Ottis Gibson

London: South Africa coach Ottis Gibson revealed that former captain AB de Villiers had “left it too late” to make himself available for selection for the squad in the 2019 World Cup. “Personally I suspect there are a lot of people wanting AB to be here (more) than AB himself,” Gibson said. “If he wanted to be here he would be here.”

Speaking to the media on Saturday ahead of South Africa’s match against the West Indies, Gibson said that de Villiers, who had retired from international cricket in May 2018, had spoken with captain Faf du Plessis and later Gibson about making a comeback into the squad.

While the conversation with du Plessis took place during the IPL, de Villiers spoke with Gibson just before the South African squad for the World Cup was announced.

Gibson said his “immediate reaction” to de Villiers at the time was that “you’ve left it too late. That’s what I said — you can quote me on that — that’s what I said.”

The former West Indies pacer, who has been coaching South Africa since August 2017, said that the door for a possible return for de Villiers was open till December 2018 after which South Africa played Pakistan and Sri Lanka before the start of the World Cup. But de Villiers never made himself available in that period. “The door was open till December and after that to come into the piece … he knew that if he really wanted to, he knew that those ten games against Pakistan and Sri Lanka were vitally important for us, since from March to World Cup we won’t have any more cricket. He knew that, and again, he has made his choice,” he said. IANS

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