Former South Africa captain AB de Villiers has echoed similar sentiments to that of Gautam Gambhir on the topic that one player doesn’t win a tournament for his team; instead, it’s the cumulative work of the players, coaches, and support staff.
Knowing that his comments may be taken out of context and that he could also get some flak from the fans of MS Dhoni, the South African legendary batsman AB de Villiers didn’t shy away from speaking his cold, hard opinion.
Recently, ABD hosted an interactive virtual session with his fans. In that fans asked him various questions ranging from his professional and personal life. One fan asked him whether a cricketer becomes great only if the player wins ICC tournaments.
MS Dhoni did not win the World Cup; Ben Stokes did not lift the trophy: AB de Villiers
Admitting that he never won an ICC trophy, AB de Villiers was quick to point out that it’s never a single player winning a competition, it’s always a collective effort from an entire team. This is something that the former India batsman Gautam Gambhir also has voiced a number of times when people hail MS Dhoni mostly was winning India the 2011 World Cup with his 91* in the final vs Sri Lanka and sealing the World Cup with his memorable six.
De Villiers also gave an example from the 2019 World Cup – that even though Ben Stokes was the Man of the Match in the 2019 WC final, it was the entire England team that won the trophy.
“Cricket is a team game, it’s not a player lifting the World Cup. I see that way too often on social platforms. MS Dhoni did not win the World Cup, India won the World Cup, so keep that in mind. Don’t forget that. Ben Stokes did not lift the trophy in Lord’s back in 2019, it was team England,” said De Villiers.
When leading South Africa, AB de Villers and his team fell inches short of reaching the 2015 World Cup final as they lost the semi-final to New Zealand marginally.
“There’s a lot that goes into winning the World Cup, I think of the coaching staff, the selectors, board members, directors, the players and the substitutes,” he added.
