Quiet greatness

LET’S get one thing straight: Hashim Amla has not received his due as a batsman who deserves to be ranked among the greatest of all time. Maybe he prefers to be under the radar. He certainly does not seem to have an extrovert, limelight-hugging kind of personality, although given his achievements to date he clearly has a strength of character second to none.

On Saturday he notched his 25th one-day international century against Sri Lanka in South Africa’s first match of the 2017 Champions Trophy, to overtake the record of teammate and captain AB de Villiers.

He’s also been the fastest in the world to every 1 000-run landmark from 2 000 to 7 000. So whichever name you’d care to mention, he’s out-hit them all. Lara, Tendulkar, Ponting, Gayle, Kohli, Smith...

And yet Amla has been seen more as a Test batsman, suited to a less frenetic scoring tempo. Indeed his silky smooth driving and calculated wristy flicks have been his trademarks, rather than explosive, improvised pyrotechnics.

Proof supreme that there is more than one way to skin an attack. (This is not to say he cannot whack boundaries when that is called for.)

He is the classic case of “if he has excellent technique and a strong mind”, he will be able to adapt his game plans and speed to scoring big in whichever format he plays – as shown by his recent success in the T20 Indian Premier League.

Tellingly, only two of Amla’s 25 ODI hundreds have come in defeats for the team. This speaks volumes for the 34-year-old’s accepting of responsibility, an intangible in considering the component parts of a champion’s make-up. And while we’re on intangibles, game intelligence – knowing when to drop anchor, and when to shift through the gears to craft momentum swings – is part of this batsman’s DNA.

So, while others may garner more headlines and rave reviews, consider that greatness comes in different varieties, and that in Amla we have one of the greatest of all time.