'There were some cancerous characters inside'- AB de Villiers on his journey with Delhi Daredevils (Capitals)

It is a proud moment for South African legend AB de Villiers, who not only saw his former side, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), win their first IPL title but also witnessed his nation win the World Test Championship final after defeating Australia in the final.

AB de Villiers might not have won many trophies as a player, but he was happy to witness that the two teams with whom he has had many wonderful moments have finally won a title after years of heartbreak. However, apart from RCB and South Africa, De Villiers was associated with another team known as the Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) in the first three seasons of the IPL. While he has a lot of great things to say about RCB and South Africa, he made a bold statement on the Delhi franchise, saying the team was in shambles despite having some great names in the setup in the earlier seasons.

“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. Lots of legends. So it's such a bittersweet moment for me because I speak… I remember it fondly. And some of the highlights of my life and career was there, spending time with Glenn McGrath and Daniel Vettori. That's where we got close. But these guys were my heroes and I was so scared of them growing up,” De Villiers said in an interview with Cricket.com.

“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,” De Villiers added.

I thought I was going to be the man. All of a sudden, not playing again: AB de Villiers

De Villiers further supported his point by talking about his journey with the team, bringing up his great 2009 season, where he was the leading run-getter for the franchise, scoring 465 runs at an average of 51.66. It turns out that the 41-year-old cricketer-turned-analyst expected to play more games but was sidelined by the team. He also talked about how much he was backed by coach Greg Shipperd even during the tough moments in the tournament.

“I enjoyed Shippy (Greg Shipperd) as the coach from New South Wales, that coached there, and he backed me a little bit, but also I didn't perform as well as I wanted to, but I never felt like I was going to get more than three games, for instance. And for a youngster, it's a tough situation to be in," the former South Africa skipper said.

“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," he concluded.