Former South African captain and superstar AB de Villiers has recently agreed to play in Pakistan during his upcoming Pakistan Super League (PSL) journey. He feels that it is the right time to start cricket in Pakistan.

While the 2019 PSL will be the fourth edition of this franchise tournament, which will be played from 14 February to 17 March 2019 in UAE and Pakistan, the former South African cricketer AB de Villiers will appear in this tournament for the very first time. He will serve for Lahore Qalandars.

Also read: BBL Game Abandoned Due To Power Outage

Recently, the former Protease cricketer has assured to play in Pakistan during the PSL 2019. Earlier, he had signed to play only the league games of the tournament in UAE. But now he has assured that he is available to appear in the last two league stage games for the team that will be played at Gaddafi Stadium (Lahore).

Talking about his decision to play in Pakistan, de Villiers told the BBC World Service’s Stumped programme, “I felt that I had this opportunity to maybe make an impact to help international cricket return to Pakistan. I was reluctant to go a few years back, when we were all a bit worried, but I feel the time is right to go back there. I’m hoping to go there and have some fun and show the whole world that Pakistan is safe to travel to again.”

Also read: Cheteshwar Pujara Willing Comeback To The ODI Squad

On the other hand, the 34-year-old has defended the new 100-ball tournament that will be launched by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2020. He also added that he would like to play that tournament.

AB de Villiers said about that innovative cricket, “I can’t see anything wrong with trying something different. I’m not set in my schedule at the moment but I would love to play in the UK. I’m sure with the tradition and the culture of cricket over there, it would be very well supported. I would love to be a part of it.”

Also read: ECB Reveals The Playing Condition For The Hundred

In last year, AB surprised everyone by retiring from the international cricket. However, he feels that he took the right decision about his international retirement.

The former South African captain said, “I feel I’ve made the right decision to retire. If they (South Africa) do approach me – and I don’t think that will happen – we’ll have a conversation and I’m pretty sure that I will be staying over here and supporting the team.”