AB de Villiers 'made last-ditch offer to come out of retirement for World Cup'

The former South Africa international had his proposal rebuffed by the team management on the eve of the final squad announcement

Former South Africa international AB de Villiers made a last-gasp offer to come out of international retirement for the World Cup, according to ESPNcricinfo.

De Villiers, who retired from international duty in May 2018, is believed to have made the offer in May, just a day before the Proteas selectors were due to unveil their final 15-man squad for the tournament in England and Wales.

The 35-year-old is said to have approached captain Faf du Plessis, head coach Ottis Gibson and convenor of selectors Linda Zondi, where he expressed his wish to reverse his retirement, but he was immediately informed this would not be possible.

ESPNcricinfo also maintain that according to people close to discussions, de Villiers' request was "not even considered".

^{De Villiers retired from international cricket in May last year}

It is understood that there were two principal reasons for the decision from the team management and selectors to reject the former captain's advances. Firstly, he did not fulfil the selection criteria, which included playing South African domestic cricket or international cricket in the months following his retirement.

It was also felt that recalling him would have been unjust to the players who have been brought in and performing well in his absence, such as Rassie van der Dussen, who made three fifties in his first four ODI innings after making his debut against Pakistan in January.

Last year, in a video posted to Twitter, the 35-year-old called time on his 14-year international career with immediate effect, declaring that he was "tired" and "running out of gas".

However, as recently as this May, de Villiers appeared keen to go back on his decision with an interview he gave to Indian TV, in which he said: "I was keen to play in the World Cup, but I left, I retired.

"It was a very sensitive situation. For the last three years of my career, I was labelled as a guy who is picking and choosing when I was playing and when not. So I got quite a lot of criticism from back home, which also played a role in me retiring.

"And it was difficult for me to then go 'Hey, but I'll still play the World Cup'. It's that picking and choosing thing again, and it's quite arrogant to do something like that. But as they say, you can't have your bread buttered on both sides."

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