The Sports Buff ⚽️ ⚾️ 🏈

For the cricketing family, it’s news that hit us like a whole in the head. Andre Benjamin de Villiers, now former South Africa international, Lahore Qalanders and RCB player has retired from all forms of cricket.

This retirement should have been made easier by the fact that AB retired from international cricket in 2018. But cricket South Africa, did get the hearts racing, where we thought just maybe ABD, just might dust off his green’s and don the green of South Africa again. Sadly it was not to be.

A very capable fielder, in fact more than capable fielder, wicket-keeper and batsmen, Mr 360 retires from cricket aged 37. Sport is often a numbers game and counted by trophies, but to quote a quote we saw posted on social media, this man is a trophy all by himself.

De Villiers played in 114 Test matches, 228 one-day internationals and 78 T20s for South Africa. He averaged more than 50 in both Test and ODI cricket, scoring 22 centuries in the former and 25 in the latter.

In all T20s, De Villiers scored 9,424 runs in 340 matches at an average of 37.24 and a strike rate of 150.13, hitting four centuries and 69 half-centuries. Congrats on your retirement AB, the cricket world will miss you. I am not crying, you are!