Opinion

AB versus CSA is about money and they think we are all fools

02 July 2017 - 00:00 By Telford Vice

How could it have come to this? That South Africa’s most captivating player of the age and their most senior administrators have, with spectacular clumsiness, stumbled into a minefield of avoidable wrongs is an indictment of how they think they can treat the public.
If AB de Villiers wanted to retire from test cricket in December, as those close to him claimed, he should have been left to do so - not begged to keep playing the format by Cricket South Africa (CSA), as insiders said.
And if he was implored not to hang up his whites, he should have refused to comply - not made the deal with the devil that amounts to him deciding which games he won't play in an effort to make it to the 2019 World Cup.
Bottom line
De Villiers's defenders say he has done no such thing, that CSA has let him down by not owning up to its side of the bargain.
But the terms of the apparent agreement remain the same whoever says what...

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