De Villiers says Delhi Daredevils had cancerous characters inside

Former South African cricketer Ab de Villiers has made some stunning revelations on his ex-IPL team Delhi Daredevils. Long before he came to be known as Mr 360, the Proteas star had played for DD for three seasons before moving to RCB. He only played one full season for the Daredevils, which happened to be in 2009 when the tournament was played in South Africa.

de Villiers on “poisonous characters” in DD

In an interview with cricket.com, de Villiers claimed that DD was in shambles despite having a star-studded line-up. He said that he had bittersweet memories about for the side along with legends like Glenn McGrath and Daniel Vettori. He admitted that he was scared of his heroes as a youngster, with many heart in the mouth moments.

“I would hate to give you names. Burning people, you know. But Delhi Daredevils were in shambles. I mean, it was. There were lots of poisonous characters in that side,” de Villiers said.

The former RCB batter further claimed that he wasn’t backed by DD at that point of time. While he refused to take up any names, de Villiers did say that there were cancerous characters inside the team who made his experience bittersweet.

“So from those highs to also realising that there were some cancerous characters inside and no need to mention names, So it was a very bittersweet three years for me. Also wasn’t backed as I would have liked to,” he added.

Move to RCB – a new home

Ab de Villiers made his move to RCB in 2011 and spent the rest of his career in the IPL with the franchise. He revealed that after amassing 465 runs in IPL 2009, he was told he will be retained by DD but instead found himself going under the hammer instead before 2011. ABD claimed that the day he joined RCB, he got a feeling that the team wanted him to grow up there and wanted him to play every game.

“2009 was nice. I played almost the entire season there in South Africa, came back, I thought I was going to be the man. All of a sudden, not playing again. So it was really mixed feelings. Told I was going to be retained, and in the next minute, I see I’m in the auction. I didn’t know what even happened. So weird things happened,” de Villiers said.