Cape Town - Proteas captain AB de Villiers says he has taken note of former New Zealand cricketer Martin Crowe's letter to him.

With the South Africans feeling the heat at the Cricket World Cup, Crowe wrote a letter for the ESPNcricinfo website in which he gave the SA skipper a few words of advice.

The Proteas beat Zimbabwe by 62 runs in their first game of the tournament, before taking a battering against India last Sunday, losing by 130 runs.

Crowe says all is not right with the South African bowling attack and he also advised De Villiers to give the struggling Wayne Parnell a shot at opening the bowling.

In his letter, Crowe also gave De Villiers advice on the rest of the bowling attack, as well as the batsmen.

CLICK HERE to read Martin Crowe's full letter to AB de Villiers

De Villiers spoke to the media ahead of his side's clash against the West Indies in Sydney on Friday.

De Villiers told the Sport Rack website that he did read Crowe's letter.

"It's quite interesting," said De Villiers. "Some valuable points he made there, some points also not that valuable.

"But I think he comes from a good place and that makes me want to read it and want to take the good points from that.

"So, point taken and, what can I say, just thank him for that, for the input, and hopefully we'll make some of the points count."

The 52-year-old Crowe announced last year that he had suffered a cancer relapse.

He was first diagnosed with lymphoma in 2012, but after months of chemotherapy, he said doctors had told him the cancer had shrunk to safe levels, although there was always the possibility of a relapse, which occurred in September 2014.

A cousin of Hollywood star Russell Crowe, Martin Crowe is widely regarded as the best batsman to have represented New Zealand.

He averaged 45.36 in his 77-Test career, which included 17 centuries.

In 1991, he scored a New Zealand record for the most runs in a single Test innings when he was dismissed for 299 playing at Wellington's Basin Reserve against Sri Lanka.

The record was not broken until last year when current captain Brendon McCullum reached 302 on the same ground against India.