Cape Town - Herschelle Gibbs has paid tribute to former Proteas team-mate AB de Villiers who announced his retirement from international cricket on Wednesday.

READ: Twitter reacts to AB's shocking retirement

Gibbs, who was recently named head coach of the Kuwait national team, took to Twitter after hearing the news of De Villiers' retirement.

The 44-year-old said De Villiers' time to retire had arrived and congratulated him on a 'wonderful career'.

Everyone knows when their time has arrived,abbas is no different. Congrats on a wonderful career @ABdeVilliers17 ??

— Herschelle Gibbs (@hershybru) May 23, 2018

De Villiers represented his country in 114 Tests, 228 One-Day Internationals (ODI) and 78 T20 Internationals.

The 34-year-old retires with an incredible Test average of 50.66 and as the fourth-highest run-scorer for South Africa with 8 765 runs (22 centuries).

His exploits in the limited-overs formats have been extraordinary, and he finishes as the No 2-ranked player in the world and as the second highest run-scorer behind Jacques Kallis with 9 577 runs at an average of 53.50.

READ: STATS: How does AB's Test, ODI & T20I record stack up?