Vernon Philander has revealed that the recent issues with the Cricket South Africa administration were the reason for his retirement from international cricket. However, later Graeme Smith took on as acting director of cricket but he already announced his retirement by then. Philander’s last game for South Africa was the fourth Test against England recently and he is all set to feature for Somerset as a kolpak player.
“As a player you get to the point where you’ve had enough,” he said this to Afrikaans weekly Rapport.
“Cricket SA’s previous administration only looked after themselves; the players were the last people they worried about. Too many things went wrong and I had to decide what was the best way forward for me. I am 34 and have a good career behind me, but I would have considered playing longer if it wasn’t for the chaos in our cricket administration.”
He also spoke on the 2015 World Cup semifinal incident against New Zealand, where he replaced an in-form Kyle Abbott due to their transformation policy. He blamed South Africa’s administration for that, citing he had no problems with Abbott.
“It’s difficult for me to look back on that,” he added.
“I blatantly and openly told the coach that the best player must play. He told me,
“you’re the best man for the day, you play’. But they were clearly not open and honest with me and Kyle. There were things happening behind closed doors. When I go to Durban, I have a beer with Kyle. There are no hard feelings between us two. But the point is: Cricket SA must sort out their stuff. What happened was a knock to both of us.”
However, Vernon Philander hoped the new management, under the guidance of Smith, would help get things better for the country.
“Hopefully we will see a turnaround in the administration and on the playing field,” he concluded.
“We must put out heads together and decide which direction we are going in. Hopefully, we can make the path for younger players better. In successful teams like Australia, England, and India, former players are involved but in South Africa, we lost our former players to other countries where they do coaching because the money is much better. We have to decide what we are willing to pay to keep former players in the country and ensure that our cricket goes forward again.”
As far as South Africa cricket is concerned, they recently appointed Quinton de Kock as their new captain in ODI format, dropping Faf du Plessis from the squad. They did pretty well in the recently-concluded series against England as well.
