ISLAMABAD – When AB de Villiers announced his retirement from all forms ofInternational cricket back in May, it did leave the cricketing fraternitybemused. However, the man himself has no regrets of walking away from thegame.

Speaking with the Independent, de Villiers confessed that the pressure ofInternational cricket had become unbearable.“It’s been unbearable at times: the pressure you have to face, performingday in and day out. The expectations you put on yourself, from fans, fromthe country, from coaches,” de Villiers said.

“It is huge and it’s something that’s on your mind all the time as acricketer. And it is definitely something that I’m not going to miss. I amvery happy to have stepped away. Absolutely no regrets,” he further added.Towards the closing stages of this career, de Villiers was criticised forpicking and choosing games and formats according to his own convenience.

He was on a self-served isolation from Test cricket for a good two years,before making a comeback for the home series against India and then againstAustralia. He was prolific in both these series (211 runs from six inningsat 35.16) and Australia (427 from eight innings at 71.16) and had an impacton the outcome of the series.

However, immediately after the Australia series, the batsman who featuredin 114 Tests, 228 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and 78 Twenty20Internationals (T20Is) for South Africa, decided to walk away from the gameaccording to his own conditions.