'It's a Shame...': AB de Villier Hits Out at Media for Misinterpreting His Remarks on Hardik Pandya's Captaincy - WATCH

Former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) star has issued a clarification on his remarks on Hardik Pandya’s style of leading the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. The South African legend was baffled by the way his remarks were misinterpreted by the media and presented before the cricket fans.

Taking to his YouTube channel, De Villiers released another video to clarify what he actually meant while speaking about Hardik Pandya. The former cricketer also made a request to ‘avoid sharing bits and parts of a piece as someone’s full opinion without the full context of what has been said’.

“I see there is a lot of activity on X about the comments I made about Hardik Pandya and Mumbai Indians. And it’s a shame that journalism and reporting has got so low (laughs). And I am very happy that some of you have pointed it out, taking some of those comments out and leaving the rest,” De Villiers said in the video.

“I very clearly stated and I will state this again – I absolutely love the way Hardik Pandya plays his game. I love the way he captains. All I can say is, his style of captaincy is something that he has certainly worked on. It’s not something that you can just walk out of the door and you are a brave captain.

“Why I said it’s always not genuine is because I played exactly the same way. I was not the soft-spoken, genuine AB de Villiers that I was at my home. The guy you saw on the field was in a way ‘an act’. Sometimes, you have to put up a front and show the opposition that you are a force to reckon with. That’s what Hardik Pandya does,” he added.

What Did AB de Villiers Say?

After MI’s tragic defeat at the hands of table-toppers KKR, De Villiers took to his YouTube channel and said Pandya’s style of captaincy was ‘ego-driven’ and not always genuine.

“The captaincy style of Hardik Pandya is quite bravado. It’s ego-driven in a way, chest out,” De Villiers said on his YouTube channel.

“I don’t think how he walks on the field is always genuine, but he has decided that is his way of captaincy. Almost like MS (Dhoni). Cool, calm, collective, always got your chest out.”

To further explain his point, De Villiers cited the example of former South Africa captain Graeme Smith who led a fairly young team to significant success during his tenure.

“When you play with a lot of experienced players, guys who have been around for ages, they don’t buy into that. It worked at GT, where it was a younger team. Sometimes, inexperienced players love to follow that kind of leadership.

“I remember Graeme Smith. He was out there for the team. All I needed to do as a youngster was to follow. Now, there’s a Rohit (Sharma), there’s a (Jasprit) Bumrah. They go like, ‘All we need you to be is calm. Give us a bit of input on how to win matches. We don’t need the bravado’.  I’m not having a go at Hardik. I love watching him play. I love him putting out his chest because I was like that. I believed that as a batter, sometimes, you’ve got to fake it to make it,” he concluded.