Hyderabad: Former cricketer AB de Villiers on Wednesday cleared the air regarding reports suggesting that Cricket South Africa (CSA) asked him to lead the team saying that the reports are "not true".
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Reports suggesting Cricket SA have asked me to lead the Proteas are just not true. It's hard to know what to believe these days. Crazy times. Stay safe everyone.
— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) April 29, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
">Reports suggesting Cricket SA have asked me to lead the Proteas are just not true. It's hard to know what to believe these days. Crazy times. Stay safe everyone.
— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) April 29, 2020Reports suggesting Cricket SA have asked me to lead the Proteas are just not true. It's hard to know what to believe these days. Crazy times. Stay safe everyone.
— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) April 29, 2020
De Villiers took to Twitter and wrote: "Reports suggesting Cricket SA have asked me to lead the Proteas are just not true. It's hard to know what to believe these days. Crazy times. Stay safe everyone."
The 35-year-old had announced his retirement from international cricket on May 23, 2018.
However, there have been media reports suggesting that De Villiers was asked to take the leadership role in the team by CSA.
"The desire is there from my side to play for South Africa and have been asked by Cricket South Africa to lead the Proteas again," the 36-year-old De Villiers, who played 114 Tests, 228 ODIs and 78 T20s, had reportedly said during a chat show.
"The most important thing to me is that I have got to be in top form and I have got to be better than the player next to me. If I feel I deserve my spot in the side, it becomes much easier for me to feel that I should be part of the playing XI."
"I have not been part of the Proteas for a while and I feel that it's important for myself and for other people to see that I am still good enough to be there," he said.
Last year also there were rumours which stated that De Villiers expressed his desire of coming out of the retirement and represent the Proteas in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2019.
At that time also, De Villiers denied the rumours saying that there was no contact between him and the CSA for months regarding his plan of coming out of retirement ahead of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup.