“Will return if MS Dhoni is around,” says AB de Villiers on playing World Cup 2023

When asked about his chances of playing in World Cup 2023, the former South Africa skipper gave one of the wittiest answers citing MS Dhoni's name

May 23, 2018 – the day when a plethora of cricket fans was left heartbroken as Abraham Benjamin de Villiers hang up his boots. He may have said goodbye to the international cricket but he keeps on entertaining with the bat in the T20 leagues. He recently participated in the 12^th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) but the entire world is going to miss him again once the ICC World Cup commences on May 30 in England. Meanwhile, De Villiers, who is also known as Mr 360 of cricket, opened up about his return plans. On being asked by Kapoor on his YouTube show about his chances of playing in World Cup 2023, the former South Africa skipper replied, “How old will I be (in 2023)? 39! I’ll come back if MS (Dhoni) is still around (laughs). If I’m still good enough, who knows eh?” Well, there is no doubt in AB’s fitness and given chance, he can sustain it till 2023 as well. However, his return for the next ICC marquee event is farfetched. Perhaps, that’s why he gave the example of Dhoni. During the show, De Villiers also went on to reveal the reason behind announcing his retirement a year before the World Cup. “I was keen to play the World Cup (2019) but I retired, so it was a very sensitive situation. For the last 3 years of my career, I was labelled as a guy who was picking and choosing when I was playing and when not. “So I got quite a lot of criticism from back home which also played a role in me retiring. And it was difficult for me to then go: ‘Hey, but I’ll still play the World Cup’. You know, it’s the picking and choosing thing again. And it’s quite arrogant to do something like that. But as they say, you can’t have your bread buttered on both sides,” said AB.