Puts World Cup before test glory

MANY have tried before him and failed, but AB de Villiers has set his sights where no other Proteas captain has gone before.

His desire to lift the World Cup is so strong, it looks like he may sacrifice his glittering test career to realise his dream.

The list of captains who have attempted to raise the coveted cup is long and illustrious.

Previous captains who have tried to win the elusive trophy are Kepler Wessels, the late Hansie Cronje, Shaun Pollock, Graeme Smith and De Villiers himself.

Wessels (Australia, New Zealand in 1992), Cronje (England in 1999), Smith (West Indies in 2007) and De Villiers (Australia, New Zealand in 2015) all came close but bowed out with heartbreaking semifinal defeats.

Time, however, is not on De Villiers’s side because he turns 33 next month and, as with all sports people, his cricketing skills will be eroded as the years roll on by.

Clearly, by deciding not to play test cricket, De Villiers wants to keep his body fresh for the 2019 showpiece in England and Wales.

This decision has alienated De Villiers from some of his fans, who feel that by picking and choosing the games, he has put himself on a pedestal.

If De Villiers does not play another test match, it would be a great shame for all cricket fans because there is no doubt he is one of the greatest batsmen ever produced by South Africa.

Even some longtime cricket lovers have mentioned De Villiers’s name in the same breath as 1970s heroes Graeme Pollock and Barry Richards.

More recently, Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla have been elevated into the pantheon of the best of the best.

Because of his latest decision to skip the New Zealand, Bangladesh and England test series, De Villiers has ensured the spotlight will be firmly on him over the next couple of months.

It will not be easy for him to maintain optimum fitness and form up until the 2019 World Cup, by which time he will be 35.

But knowing De Villiers’s commitment and passion, his World Cup ambition could easily become a reality for the best batsman we have produced in the modern era.