Shoaib Akhtar: “Be a man and stick to your decision”
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Legendary Pakistan pace bowler Shoaib Akhtar has lashed out at AB de Villiers for offering to come out of retirement to represent South Africa at the ongoing World Cup.
De Villiers shocked the cricketing world when he retired from international cricket in May 2018.
However, he told captain Faf du Plessis and coach Ottis Gibson that he would be willing to come out of retirement to play in the World Cup if they needed his services.
But, the problem was that the selectors only found out about this right before they named South Africa’s World Cup squad.
Akhtar feels that De Villiers decided to retire from international cricket since he could get more lucrative contracts in domestic Twenty20 competitions around the world.
The 43-year-old added that De Villiers must now live with his decision.
“Recently AB de Villiers announced that he wants to play for South Africa in the World Cup. This is big news but why is he issuing such statements when South Africa are down and out,” Akhtar was quoted as saying by CricTracker. “Firstly, people must not forget that there was pressure on AB de Villiers to leave IPL and PSL contracts and make himself available for the World Cup.
“However, he chose the IPL and PSL, announced an early retirement and recused himself from the World Cup. So basically everything started with finance. I think when he took this decision, he did it looking at his finances and economics.
“I don’t mind people making money but do it in the right way. If you indeed have to make money then pick and chose correctly but keep your country as the priority. Now to clear your name you made a last-ditch offer to come out of international retirement for this summer’s World Cup. But I think the management was correct in their stand.
“Now I think, you wanted to loot the whole mela and become breaking news by coming out into the team but that is not right. Be a man and stick to your decision and that is only possible once you let go of the lure of money.”
South Africa have lost all three of their World Cup games thus far as they lost to England by 104 runs, were beaten by 21 runs by Bangladesh and fell to India by six wickets.
The Proteas’ next World Cup game will be against the West Indies in Southampton on Monday.