AB de Villiers, Lara, Tait and self-enforced breaks from cricket

NEW DELHI: South African superstar AB de Villiers' announcement Wednesday that he was taking a prolonged break from Test cricket, and that his priority is the 2019 World Cup, has divided opinions across the cricketing landscape.
While insisting that he is not retiring from the five-day game, de Villiers, 32, told reporters in Centurion that he was ruling himself out of South Africa's summer Tests in England and two matches with Bangladesh in September-October as he started "prioritizing what I want to achieve".That means that he will target a return to Tests for South Africa's home series against India and Australia towards the end of the year,
ALSO READ: De Villiers to skip England, Bangladesh Tests
He is not the first prominent global cricket star to take a break from one format.
In 2000, Brian Lara took a break from cricket in what was a turbulent time for his career. In February of that year, Lara quit as West Indies captain, blaming his team's "devastating failures" for a 0-7 whitewash in New Zealand and returned to his home in Trinidad, where he spent time with family and friends and played golf. Lara is believed to have undergone counseling in an attempt to find motivation for a return to the sport, and during this time away he appeared in a celebrity golf tournament and celebrated his 31st birthday with close friend and Manchester United star Dwight Yorke while West Indies played Test series with Pakistan and Zimbabwe.
ALSO READ: De Villiers opts out of Tests in New Zealand
It was later revealed that Yorke coaxed Lara back from the brink of retirement. The left-hander batsman returned to play for West Indies a couple months later, for the tour of England.

In 2008, the tearaway Australian fast bowler Shaun Tait walked away from the sport indefinitely while citing physical and emotional exhaustion. Tait's decision after a rough 12-month period, during which he made his ODI debut and helped Australia win the 2007 World Cup with 23 wickets and also returned to the Test team, but went wicketless.

At the time, Tait described it as "a very difficult position for me to be in at this time" and that taking a forced break from professional cricket would "hopefully give me a clear mind and a chance for my body to rest and recover". He made a comeback later in 2008 and was named in Australia's ODI and T20I squads. In 2011, following the World Cup, Tait quit one-day cricket for three seasons before coming out of retirement in 2014 to try and help South Australia win domestic titles.
In June 2016, England and Middlesex batsman Nick Compton announced he was taking an indefinite break from cricket after "a challenging start to the season, both physically and mentally". The news came shortly after the 32-year-old managed 51 run-in five innings during a home Test series victory over Sri Lanka. Compton - grandson of England cricket legend Dennis - had made a comeback to the Test team in December 2015 for the tour of South Africa after a two-and-a-half-year absence, which he described as "a second coming".

Compton returned to play first-class cricket for Middlesex in August 2016, and featured in six matches of the County Championship.
In May 2016, England's highly rated wicketkeeper Sarah Taylor - the first woman to play first-grade men's cricket in Australia - also took an indefinite break from cricket to deal with debilitating panic attacks. Taylor admitted that she suffered from anxiety, describing it as a "mental injury" and putting her health ahead of her career. She has not played cricket since then.