De Villiers advocated for longer Test series and reckoned that “something has to change” if the best team in the world is to be identified.
“I am not happy that there is not a third Test. You have to blame the T20 cricket going around the world for that,” he said on his YouTube channel. “I do not know whom to blame, but I sense something is wrong. If you want to see all the teams compete and see who is the best Test team in the world, something has to change.”
The Tests will clash with the second season of the SA20, set to run from January 10 to February 10, with most of the top South African cricketers playing in the tournament.
De Villiers feels Test cricket is under pressure and admitted that the players and coaches would rather opt for competitions that offer big money than play the five-day format.
“It (South Africa’s Test squad for New Zealand) has sent shockwaves around the cricketing world and has made it clear that Test cricket is under pressure, for that matter even ODI cricket and the whole system is turning around T20 cricket.
“The players, the board and coaches will turn towards where there is more money. You cannot blame them for thinking about their future with their family.”
Cape Town surface ‘pretty stock-standard’
The surface for the second India-South Africa Test came under much scrutiny after the match ended in just under two days – the shortest-ever in the history of Test cricket. There were concerns about the standard of the pitch in Cape Town but de Villiers termed the surface as “pretty stock-standard”.
“It was a pretty stock-standard wicket, in my opinion. I remember jumping around there on day one,” he said. “If you can just get through the first session on day one, it gets easier. If you see the players playing their shots and not hanging around, they were doing well. I remember Ben Stokes scoring a double-hundred there. I scored some hundreds there.
“You cannot allow bowlers like Vernon Philander, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kagiso Rabada to keep bowling on off stump.”