‘AB de Villiers may return for T20 WC’

CAPE TOWN: Thanks to Mark Boucher, Du Plessis is hearing about AB de Villiers comeback again. But, this time, it could happen.

“I’m so used to that question now,” Du Plessis said on Monday evening after captaining the Paarl Rocks to triumph in the Mzansi Super League final. To the delight of a sold-out home crowd they thumped, by eight wickets with 34 balls remaining, the Tshwane Spartans - who failed to capitalise on the 37-ball 51 scored by one Abraham Benjamin de Villiers.

De Villiers shocked the world game in May last year when, three months after his 34th birthday, he retired from international cricket to join the band of T20 mercenaries travelling from tournament to tournament. It seemed he had had enough of the personal commitment required to play in all formats at international level as well as in the T20 franchise arena.

The sacrifices his family had to make to allow him to do so had mounted, as had the pressure that came with being South Africa’s superstar. Now, it seems, things have changed and he is in discussions with the relevant figures.

“People want AB to play and I am no different,” Du Plessis said. “Those conversations [with De Villiers] have been happening for two or three months already - what does it look like, how does it look over the next year, and that’s where it starts.