The former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batsman. AB de Villiers revealed that Virat Kohli tried to convince him not to retire from franchise cricket before he quits the game in 2021.Speaking on TOI Sports’ Bombay Sports Exchange Podcast, de Villiers said Kohli made an effort to change his mind but had already decided it was the right time to move on. “Yes. He tried,” de Villiers said when asked if Kohli tried to stop him.The South African great retired from international cricket in 2018 after helping his team beat India and Australia at home. He continued to play franchise cricket, including for RCB in the Indian Premier League (IPL), before retiring from all forms of the game in 2021.“I stepped away from international cricket exactly when I wanted to (2018). We beat India and Australia at home, and I left on a high.”“So I decided to continue playing a few T20 tournaments, travel the world with my family, take them to the IPL, to England for the Blast, to Australia for the Big Bash and a few other tournaments. When I finally feel ready, I will call it a day (from franchise cricket also in 2021).”De Villiers said that retiring from the IPL was not a sudden decision and that he had thought about it during his last season.“It took time. That thought was in my mind throughout the last season or so. Eventually, I simply went to Virat and said, ‘I’m done,'” de Villiers said.De Villiers also spoke about the pressure of playing in front of a packed crowd at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium, where fans chanted his name.“These moments can also be draining. Those moments also bring sleepless nights. It’s not all sunshine and roses. There are also difficult moments. The expectation and the pressure you put on yourself can sometimes be suffocating. I’ve talked about this before. I’m incredibly proud of what I’ve achieved. But before big games, I often struggle to sleep the impact of the team. It’s difficult to be just myself. So it wasn’t always easy,” De Villiers said on TOI Sports’ Bombay Sports Exchange Podcast.Reflecting on life after retirement, he said the joy of success doesn’t last long, even for the greatest players.“Of course, I miss those moments. When everything clicked and the crowd helped me enter that zone, it was an incredible feeling. But success disappears very quickly. Every champion will tell you the same thing. You won the biggest trophy, and an hour later you already asked yourself: “Now what?” Then your attention immediately shifts to the subsequent trophies. I can now look back on those memories with enormous gratitude.“
