2019 World Cup is the goal, not Tests, says AB de Villiers

Bengaluru: Laying hands on cricket’s most coveted trophy, the World Cup, is every cricketer’s dream. And AB de Villiers, desperate to take home the Cup, is taking every possible step to turn that dream into reality.

Having been troubled by injury for most of the latter part of last year, ABD set things in motion from the onset of this year putting Test cricket on the backseat.

Down in the city for the IPL, the Proteas batsman opened up about his decision to take a break from cricket’s longest format.

“It’s very simple. It’s been coming for a few years now, where I’ve felt that I had quite a few reasons where I need to manage my cricket a bit,” said ABD.

“Firstly, my goal is the 2019 World Cup. We haven’t won a trophy like that in an ICC event before. So my focus has changed over the years, and seeing that we haven’t won one yet and looking at my age – I’m 33 now and probably not going to play for another 10 years – so my chances of winning a World Cup are becoming less and less. And there are a few things that stand in my way to get to that World Cup – it’s physical fitness, mental freshness, time with the family, time at home, things like that.”

“For me to stay on the park and stay healthy until 2019 and so forth, I decided that what’s hardest on my body is Test cricket. It’s five days of cricket and three days of prep for every Test match, so that’s eight-nine days for one game of Test cricket. For me to get to the 2019 World Cup, I felt that I just needed to get away from that format a little bit,” stated ABD.