South Africa must prepare for tricky transition: Smith

The untimely retirement of "irreplaceable" AB de Villiers is a big loss for South Africa and the team must prepare for the challenging transition they face in the next couple of years, former captain Graeme Smith has told Reuters. The South African batting talisman announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket last week after a glittering career spanning close to 14 years.
The 34-year-old's audacious batting style and breathtaking fielding has made him one of the sport's leading lights and there is barely a dull moment for the spectators when De Villiers is on the cricket field. "I think AB's thought about it a lot," Smith, who himself made a shocking retirement at the age of 33 four years back, said in an interview.
"I thought definitely he would retire after the 2019 World Cup. But when he made his comeback and did so well in the home summer in South Africa, had a really good IPL (Indian Premier League), I didn't even think about it." De Villiers retired with a test average of 50.66 and as the fourth-highest scorer for South Africa with 8,765 runs. In ODI cricket, he holds the records for the fastest 50 (16 balls), 100 (31 balls) and 150 (64 balls) with those innings exhibiting his 360-degree batting ability, much to the amusement of the fans.
"Ultimately people will be very disappointed because they are going to miss him, just because he was that brilliant. They wanted to see him play more," Smith said at the sidelines of the Ceat Cricket Rating awards. "But the guy has played international cricket for around 15 years... More than anything he has the right to decide when he's had enough. He will have his own reasons for that, you got to respect that."
Left-handed opener Smith was a veteran of 117 tests, 109 of those as captain, and is the world record holder for the most test wins as skipper of a five-day team with 53. He remains the most capped test captain in the history of the game and was handed the reins of the South African side at the age of 22. Smith does not expect De Villiers to make himself available to play in different Twenty20 leagues across the globe but hoped the batsman will continue entertaining fans for at least a couple of years more.