Brothers architects of AB’s mastery
AS IF England’s cricketers needed any reminder of who is the most brilliant batsman in the world today, they were given it a few days ago as they boarded their flight for Pietermaritzburg.
Airport shuttle buses normally advertise duty-free shops, or perhaps a brand of car, but whizzing around O R Tambo airport in Johannesburg were some that proclaimed on their sides: “149 from only 44 balls.” That was it. No name supplied. It was unnecessary because, in a country still obsessed with rugby, Abraham Benjamin de Villiers is as famous as any Springbok.
Universally, however – and not least in India, where he has become another god because of his feats in the IPL – he is known as AB.
To be known by your initials is a rare accolade in cricket, given to few since WG Grace.
Australia’s former captain Allan Border was known as AB, but he was renowned for his nuggety defiance.
The current AB is famed for being the best, the most skilful, striker of a cricket ball there has ever been.
Those airport buses are referring to the fastest century yet made in one-day internationals, earlier this year, against West Indies in Johannesburg.
De Villiers reached his century off only 31 balls, before accelerating.
He raised the bar by such a distance that he beat the record for the fastest ODI hundred by five balls.
For England, by comparison, the fastest century was scored by Jos Buttler in Dubai against Pakistan last month – off 46 balls.
In the World Cup, a couple of months later, De Villiers, against the same hapless opposition, at sea level in Sydney, hit the fastest 150 in ODI history, off 64 balls, and finished with an unbeaten 162 off 66.
The West Indian bowlers were hit, not so much in front of the wicket, as scooped, shovelled and ramped to all angles behind it, in an exhibition of unprecedented dexterity.
This virtuosity of De Villiers, 31, was developed from a very early age.
De Villiers was by far the youngest of three brothers born to AB de Villiers Sr, a medical doctor who played rugby, and his wife Millie, who played tennis very competitively and now works in property around Pretoria.
Left to his own devices in the small country town of Warmbad, in northern South Africa, the infant hit tennis balls against a wall by himself.
“I always felt, when I was growing up, like I was going to perform in front of a crowd,” De Villiers recalled.
“I didn’t know what I was going to be, but I always had those voices in my head. Knocking balls on the wall with my tennis racket, I could always imagine a crowd around me and cheering me on,” he added, in an interview with Cricinfo, on the eve of his 100th Test in India last month.
De Villiers had one brother six years older and another nine – and when he joined in, they did not spare him one jot.
“They would try to intimidate me,” De Villiers remembered.
“The bat was actually too heavy for me, and I would rest it on the dustbin while they were walking back to their mark.
“They battled to get me out and they would get so frustrated that they’d bowl a couple of beamers at me to see what I would do.
“My brothers were merciless. They were monsters. There were always a lot of tears – usually mine,” he laughed.