Dad's the word as AB de Villiers misses ODIs

08 July 2015 - 02:03 By Telford Vice

AB de Villiers' paternity leave has been extended, courtesy of the International Cricket Council. De Villiers was due to return home from SA's tour of Bangladesh after the one-day series, which ends on Wednesday next week, to be with his wife, Danielle, for the birth of their first child.But the one-match ban the ICC yesterday slapped on the SA ODI captain, because his team fell foul of the over-rate regulations twice in 12 months, has changed all that.Instead of sitting out the first of the three ODIs, De Villiers has been released for the whole rubber."AB's presence and contributions will be missed but we felt this would be a great opportunity to develop the next tier of batters," Cricket SA quoted coach Russell Domingo as saying.Hashim Amla will take the reins in De Villiers' absence.The Proteas beat Bangla-desh by 31 runs in the second Twenty20 international to take the two-match series 2-0 in Dhaka yesterday...

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