Cape Town - AB de Villiers will not be making a Proteas return for next year's Cricket World Cup in England. 

There had been media reports last week out of India suggesting that De Villiers was open to the idea of a return to international cricket, but speaking at the launch of the Tshwane Spartans ahead of the inaugural Mzansi Premier League (MSL), De Villiers put those rumours firmly to bed. 

"I certainly don’t want to confuse anyone around the cricketing world and especially not the Proteas," De Villiers was quoted as saying on the Citizen website. 

"It would be very selfish and arrogant of me to throw around statements that I’m still keen to play a World Cup.

"No-one is that good that they can just walk back into a national team."

De Villiers acknowledged that the rumours had started when he replied with an answer of "never say never" when asked about his international future in India. 

"It’s a philosophy I’ve always followed. I never look too far ahead. It came out horribly wrong and suddenly it was headlines in India. It’s not cool," he said.

De Villiers will be playing in the MSL, which gets underway on November 16.