Former South Africa cricketer AB de Villiers has issued an apology to Virat Kohli and his family. De Villiers’ apology comes after he claimed that Kohli and Anushka Sharma were going to have a child, while speaking on his YouTube channel. De Villiers’ words came at a time when fans had been speculating about the reason behind Kohli’s break from the Indian team during an all-important Test series against England.

On Saturday, 10 February, de Villiers, in one of his live sessions on YouTube issued an apology to the fans and requested the fans to respect the cricketer’s privacy.

“My friend Virat Kohli is still not available. I cry out to everyone to give him the privacy that he deserves. Family comes first. No one knows what exactly is going on. I am asking all of us to respect that. I did bit of a blunder in my previous show and I apologise to the Kohli family for that,” AB de Villiers said on his YouTube channel.

“Just not nice. I shared information that was not confirmed at all so. I am begging everyone out there to respect him and his family and his private time. Hopefully, we will see Virat back, happy and scoring runs as he always does,” he further added.

AB de Villiers makes U-Turn

The former cricketer, who is known to be a close friend of Kohli, landed himself in trouble after he revealed his private conversation with the senior India player.

“All I know is he is fine. He is spending a bit of time with his family, that is the reason he is missing the first two Test matches. I am not going to confirm anything else. I cannot wait to see him back. He is fine, he is happy,” AB de Villiers had said on his YouTube channel.

“So I wrote to him ‘Been wanting to check in with you for a while now biscuits. How are you?’. He said ‘Just need to be with my family right now’. Then I said I am doing well.

“Yes, his second child is on the way. Yes, it’s family time and things are important to him. If you are not true and genuine to yourself, you lose track of what you are here for. I think most people’s priority is family. You can’t judge Virat for that. Yes, we miss him, but he has made the right decision,” de Villiers had further added.

De Villiers went back on his word a day later and apologised for his mistake in an interview with Dainik Bhaskar and claimed that whatever he had said was false information.

“Absolutely family comes first, it’s a priority, as I said on my YouTube show. Also, I made a terrible mistake at the same time and yeah, sharing false information which was not true at all. No one knows what’s happening,” De Villiers told Dainik Bhaskar.

“That’s all I can do is wish him well and I think the whole world that follows Virat and that enjoys his cricket, must just wish him well, and whatever the reason is for this break. Really hope that he comes back stronger, better, healthier, and fresh,” the the former South Africa captain added.

The Indian team announced their squad for the last three Test matches on Saturday. Kohli was not named in the squad.