Would love to get my hands on the trophy: De Villiers

It’s no secret that AB de Villiers is yearning for a major trophy. He led South Africa to as close as it has ever been in such tournaments two years ago at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, only for the campaign to end with broken hearts and tearful eyes.

Two years on, de Villiers and South Africa’s quest resumes on Saturday when they take on Sri Lanka in an ICC Champions Trophy 2017 clash at The Oval.

The longing for a title came to the fore once again as de Villiers held the trophy kept beside him for photographs with a wide grin before addressing the media on the eve of the game.

“I'd love to get my hands on it,” he said, looking balefully at the trophy. “It feels good in my hands actually, to be honest with you. I'd love to take that home one day.”

But along with the yearning, there was determination as well. The Champions Trophy crown wouldn’t just quench South Africa’s title-thirst, but also go a long way in helping it prepare for the ultimate prize – the World Cup.

“I think it will help a crazy lot if we can win this one for the 2019 World Cup,” said de Villiers. “It's again here in England. If you can do it once here, you can definitely repeat it. So yeah, lots of focus on this tournament. It's a short tournament, so it's not quite the same as the World Cup and not the same kind of challenges.

“But if you do get your rhythms right in this tournament and you get going, and if we do that, I think we'll be difficult to stop.”

According to de Villiers, the ‘rhythm’ for South Africa had already begun with the series against England leading up to this tournament. South Africa lost the series 1-2, but de Villiers put that down to using it as a warm-up.

“As difficult as it is for me to say, yes, it was definitely a warm-up for us,” he explained. “But I hate to say that because I hate losing games of cricket, as well. So it was a bit of a catch-22 to get that right message across to the boys. It was maybe a bit confusing at times. But if you do go into a series thinking that you want to play all 15 players, you're not really focusing on just winning that series because your mind is a little bit elsewhere, so I think that's what happened.

“But also I think we peaked really well throughout that series, and ended up looking back thinking that, you know what, we actually could have won that series easily, which is a great boost of confidence for us keeping in mind that we played 15 players and it was a bit of a warm-up for the Champions Trophy. So yes, I think we are peaking at the right time. We had a fantastic time at that last ODI, and we feel confident going into this first one tomorrow.”

De Villiers once again said that such tournaments are the reason why he has temporarily opted out of Test cricket, but stressed that he hasn’t retired from the longer format.

“I haven't given up Tests. I've decided to take a bit of time away from it to make sure that I am fresh for tournaments like this,” he explained. “And it's worked pretty well so far. I've had some injury scares in the recent past, but luckily got through all that.”

While de Villiers was away recovering from injuries – to his elbow and back – South Africa found an able leadership replacement in Faf du Plessis. Under du Plessis, South Africa blanked Australia 5-0 in a home ODI series and also won a Test series in Australia, but when de Villiers returned, he did so as captain.

De Villiers conceded it wasn’t easy to walk in as captain in such a scenario, but stressed that he was ‘accepted’ by his teammates.

“It has its challenges always, being captain of this team in any of the formats,” he said. “But I've done it for quite a while now in the specific formats. I feel pretty comfortable with that. I've been well accepted by the side. There are not only one or two leaders in the team; we have got four or five really strong leaders, and we all have the right to have a voice at times and we all allow that as a leadership group.

“I've never been a kind of leader to come in and to try claim my territory. I feel very comfortable when I come into the side and the culture that we've created allows me to come in and do my thing.”