Graeme Smith advises AB de Villiers to give up ODI captaincy

Graeme Smith was the most successful Test captains ever, winning 53 matches at a W/L ratio of almost 2

What’s the story?

In his column for The Independent, Graeme Smith, the former South African Test captain, advised AB de Villiers to give up the ODI captaincy in the best interests of his career. He slammed AB de Villiers’ and CSA’s PR team for their handling of AB’s decision to back out of two test tours and further made a point about seemingly irrelevant series being organised by boards. 

In case you didn’t know…

AB de Villiers had decided to hang up the whites a year back but was coerced by the CSA to stay after taking some time out of the game as the ODI skipper received stick from the media for “picking and choosing” series. De Villiers’ career has spanned 13 years, during which he has led the team for a few years as well. 

The details

Graeme Smith spoke about the poor handling of De Villiers’ press announcement to take time out of Test Cricket and said that the 33-year-old did not have to prove anything to anyone. He backed his former teammate's efforts to extend his career by any means possible and asked the readers whether they would prefer De Villiers playing a few Test series as compared to playing for the country in the 2019 World Cup.

He also advised De Villiers to give up the captaincy, saying it would allow him to continue playing for a longer time.

Smith made a point about bilateral series, saying that despite having sold out all three venues, the teams did not take the games seriously, reflecting their boards’ stance on meaningless series. He questioned both boards on their scheduling of series that are not taken seriously by either party, citing Morgan’s decision to rest himself ahead of the decider (he is not playing in the upcoming Tests) in Cardiff as an example of how the teams did not show the correct competitive spirit, asking them to rethink their policies towards meaningless bilateral series .

What’s next?

For De Villiers, he needs to meet with the CSA in August to confirm his decision. He has shown the want to lead South Africa in ODIs but there might be pressure on him to relieve himself of the duty. As for bilateral series like the T20I series between England and South Africa, they have been criticised by several ex-players, such as Michael Vaughan, and boards may be less likely to plan such series in the future.

Author’s take

De Villiers’ decision is not completely his own, as there are several moving parts. While he has earned the right to call time on his career whenever he wants, in the best interests of South African cricket he would look to make a public decision about his career before their next tour (after the England Test series). If de Villiers is to retire from Test cricket, this will mean that South Africa will need to groom a young middle order batsman for the 2019 Test league, and an extended home season is a good starting point.

South Africa can expect a massive exodus of players in 2019 with Faf du Plessis, Hashim Amla, Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Chris Morris looking likely to call time after the World Cup, and AB seems to want to last until then as well. The 2019 World Cup will be a sort of ‘last try’ for this group of players to win a global trophy and finally live up to their potential.

De Villiers’ retiring from Tests could allow him to reach that point. As of now, the team has done pretty well without him, climbing to number two spot in the world rankings from sixth since De Villiers last played a Test, and should be able to maintain a high standard of performance without him.

In terms of captaincy, De Villiers should give up the ODI captaincy immediately. Not only does having a different ODI and T20 captain make little sense, but Du Plessis has been a natural leader since last year. Having him focus on his batting will ensure longevity, as well as be beneficial for the Proteas.

De Villiers has made some gaffes in captaincy in recent times and the stress of the leadership has reflected in his somewhat restricted batting. In addition, Faf’s ODI leadership saw a 5-0 thrashing of Australia and a 5-0 beating of Sri Lanka, playing most of the games without Dale Steyn and all of them without South Africa’s best batsman, AB de Villiers, who at the time, was out injured.

As for bilateral series are concerned, in days where context is key, and a World T20 will be played every two years, is there even a point in playing under-strength bilateral T20s? If the games are played in a tri-series, or with full strength teams it allows for interesting games, but series like this undermine the meaning of ‘international cricket’ and should not be scheduled anymore.