De Villiers was a phenomenon... but could his international legacy have been greater without franchise cricket?

HUW TURBERVILL: AB de Villiers will surely be recalled just as much for his T20 franchise exploits. Personally for me that is a bit sad, but for the modern generation and those to come, perhaps they do not care

^{AB de Villiers has retired from international cricket}

Maybe it’s an odd thing to say about somebody who has played 114 Tests, 228 ODIs and 78 T20Is, but there is a sense of AB de Villiers’ international exit leaving us wanting more.

For the generations who came before him – the Allan Donald/Shaun Pollock/Brian McMillan/Mark Boucher one (probably best leave Hansie Cronje out of this), and the Graeme Smith/Herschelle Gibbs/Jacques Kallis/Makhaya Ntini brigade – there was no debate about what their priority was – it was international cricket.

Chiefly Test cricket, then ODIs. Yes most of them had enjoyable stints with the counties, but playing for South Africa was key.

De Villiers will surely be recalled just as much for his T20 franchise exploits, however. Personally for me that is a bit sad, but for the modern generation and those to come, perhaps they do not care. Cricket is cricket, after all.

Certainly fans of Delhi Daredevils (for whom he played between 2008–10) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (2011–) will not be concerning themselves with such trifling. They will recall his unbelievable-at-times 360 degrees strokeplay, and his phenomenal fielding. In India.

^{De Villiers possesses a remarkable array of shots}

Perhaps, like Alec Stewart before him, the wicketkeeping also wore him out prematurely.

He averaged 50 in Tests, so he was clearly a true great, but he has finished with 8,765 runs, only 20th on the all-time list, miles behind Sachin Tendulkar’s 15,921 in 200 Tests… or Jacques Kallis’ 13,289 in 166 for that matter… third on the list and South Africa’s highest.

That said, the keeping did not hinder his batting – he averaged 57 in 24 Tests with the keeper’s mits on, and 48 in 90 without!

Could de Villiers have averaged 60, like George Headley? If franchise cricket had not become so powerful and engulfing, he would have surely scored 10,000 Test runs plus… I hate to be churlish, though. He was a magnificent player.

Interestingly, though, of his 22 Test centuries, only two came against England. One was on debut at Centurion in 2005, while the other was an obdurate, vital 174 (381 balls) in the victory at Headingley in 2008. He made an impressive six against Australia.

If I had to pick one innings, it would be the 169 he made at pacy Perth in 2012. It was his first as keeper. It came off only 184 balls, with 21 fours and three sixes, against an attack including Mitchells Starc and Johnson, and it confirmed South Africa as the No.1-ranked team. Sparkling, inventive and entertaining were words that were used to describe it – and they sum him up nicely as an international cricketer.

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