AB de Villiers wanted to retire from Tests, board persuaded him to continue: Jonty Rhodes

New Delhi: The uncertainity surrounding AB de Villiers' future in Test cricket has been looming for quite a while, and there have been reports that the South African batsman could call it times on the longer format of the game anytime this month. Fellow countryman and former Proteas star Jonty Rhodes put light on the matter saying De Villiers had infact thought about reitiring but kept going after being requested by the board.

Jonty, who took on the role of mentoring Tamil Nadu Premier League team Ruby Trichy Warriors spoke to TOI about the subject.

"I spoke to ABD on Tuesday with regards to the Global T20 that's going to happen in SA. And certainly he didn't ask my opinion about his career. Every player knows when their time is right. The frustrating part from the South African context is that when you are waiting for somebody to come back in, you are almost trying to plug the gaps with options. And you play that guy (who replaces ABD) in and out of a side," Rhodes revealed.

The legendary fielder, also spoke about how AB has been willing to quit Test cricket but the board kept him away from retirement.

"I think he wanted to retire a while back from Test cricket, but Cricket South Africa persuaded him to stay on. Before 2016, he was talking to people about his Test future. In SA, people are critical because they don't see the IPL mechanism. They think cricketers are trying to make as much money as possible and it's often at the expense of national call-ups. 

The BCCI is the only cricket board that doesn't allow their players to play in other competitions. But our guys go from IPL to CPL to England to Big Bash. And they play Test and ODIs whenever they can. There is so much workload and the guys work hard," the South African added