Cape Town - It is a real shame that AB de Villiers will miss the three-Test series against Australia in November due to his ongoing elbow problem.
Cricket South Africa announced on Tuesday that the South African captain will have an operation on his left elbow next week to deal with the “impingement” problem that has kept him sidelined for last month’s New Zealand Tests and ODIs against Ireland and Australia.
But the fact that he is going to miss the tour Down Under should be the real cause for concern for Cricket South Africa, Proteas coach Russell Domingo and De Villiers himself.
Five-day combat is the ultimate format of the game. It is where the true greats are identified, and where the toughest examination takes place. De Villiers is perhaps already in that category as a batsman, having played in 106 Tests and averaging 50.46.
But he still has a way to go to be spoken of in the same breath as Graeme Smith as a Test captain. It is about winning series, home or away, against the likes of Australia, England and India - all things that Smith achieved in his 12-year reign.
Of course, the T20 “beast” has overwhelmed the cricketing landscape in recent years, and it resulted in De Villiers playing in both the IPL in India and the CPL in the Caribbean this year.
He admitted recently that he had been playing with “five or six injuries” over the last while as he was hoping to keep going, but the madness has to stop. De Villiers needs to make a call and cut out either one or two formats of the game at international or franchise level if he hopes to continue destroying bowling attacks.
Of course, the best outcome for the Proteas in such a situation could be for De Villiers to play in Tests and ODIs and drop T20 internationals. But there are not a significant amount of T20s played anyway, so it won’t make a huge difference to the 32-year-old’s workload.
It is understandable that De Villiers would want to earn the big bucks at the IPL and other T20 franchise tournaments around the world, but he has stated that he wants to lead the Proteas Test team back to the top of the ICC rankings, as well as possibly have one last shot at winning a World Cup in 2019, when he will be 35.
That is definitely achievable, but only if he cuts back on his schedule. Something had to give, and now De Villiers won’t be in Australia in November, which is a huge blow to the Proteas’ chances of winning the series.
Maybe the best way forward is for the right-hander to sit out certain ODI series - like against Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, New Zealand and even the West Indies - over the next few years, and definitely not play in T20 international cricket.
Those games could be used to bring through the next generation of batsmen such as Temba Bavuma, Rilee Rossouw and Stiaan van Zyl.
De Villiers is special enough to be given such preferential treatment.
@ashfakmohamed
Independent Media