Ravi Chaturvedi: The autobiography of Abraham Benjamin de Villiers’ dwells on the life and the achievements of the finest batsman playing international cricket today. It is a racy account of the supremely talented professional’s career, mainly dwelling on his style of batting and his humble but determined captaincy of the South African team. The book traces de Villiers’ slow but steady climb to the top, culminating in the Protean ODI captaincy. It is a 328 paged compendium with more than four dozen photographs portraying various facets of his life from childhood to cricket stardom. The autobiography reveals his love for India and his close affinity with the India captain Virat Kohli. It is a must for every cricket fan who has watched de Villiers bat to learn how he climbed the ladder. It may be worthwhile to reproduce an incident cited by Jonty Rhodes — who has penned the foreword — during IPL 2015, testifying to the batting prowess of de Villers. “...together with other members of the coaching staff of the Mumbai Indians, we watched AB destroy our bowling attack and win the game for Royal Challengers Bangalore. He was batting for the visiting side, but the Mumbai crowd — our supporters — chanted his name before every single delivery”. “ABD! ABD! ABD! ABD!” The book is a romantic account of a boy who achieves his dream of being a cricketer. It is the story of the youngest of three gifted, sports-mad siblings of a doctor (who played rugby) growing up in the relaxed environs of the Transvaal countryside and encouraged to compete in sports. On moving to high school in Pretoria, he played cricket, golf, rugby and tennis before finally settling on cricket for good. AB made his foray in international cricket just after his teens and since then has been a members of South Africa’s team in all formats of the game for the last 11 seasons. An extraordinary talent who redefined the art of batting, he is ranked as the best in Tests, ODIs and Twenty20 cricket, both at the international and domestic level. The high water mark of de Villiers’ cricketing achievement was his breaking the record for the fastest hundred in an ODI against West Indies in 2015. On the flip side, failures have been rare for him in this period. Making his Test debut in 2004 against England at 20, de Villiers struggled with the bat while also occasionally donning wicket-keeping gloves and bowling military-medium stuff. After the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean, he realised he needed to curb his inconsistency. In one chapter, AB at length dwells on useful time spent time with team-mate Jacques Kallis at nets to tighten his defence and learn lessons in shot selection. It worked wonders and he has not looked back. The autobiography contains many unknown facets of his cricketing life. It throws light on his quest for brilliance and dependence of the team on his bat. It is a saga of the highs and lows of a versatile cricketer. More than 8,000 runs in Tests and in ODIs and over 35,000 runs as a professional cricketer prompted former Australia wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist to label him, “the most valuable cricketer on the planet.” It was underlined in IPL 2016 where Virat Kohli, David Warner and AB were adjudged the three most prolific batsmen. In contemporary cricket, he is regarded as the best batsman in the world at present and one of the best of all time. AB holds the records for the fastest 50 (16 balls), 100 (31 balls) and 150 (64 balls) of all time in one-dayers. He also holds the record of fastest hundred by a South African in Tests and the fastest 50 by a South African in T20Is. He has never scored a duck in his 78 Tests and is a three-time ICC ODI player of the year. The most important component of the autobiography is about AB’s batting. The reviewer will indulge in the luxury of commenting on the abundance of his batting talent from a relevant part of the book, “... he is one of the finest batsmen ever to play cricket, and yet his achievement extends beyond his outrageous armoury of drives, flicks, hooks, paddles, pulls and scoops. As an international cricketer wherever seen, he plays in wholehearted mode that projects a positive image of his country around the world to make millions of South African proud of themselves”. In the chapter titled “All-Rounder”, it would be natural to assume the reference is to cricket. In AB’s case it goes beyond the cricket cliché. As a schoolboy he was an athlete, swimmer and played badminton, golf, hockey, football, rugby, tennis and received a national medal from President Mandela for a science project. Even in South Africa colours, he has gone beyond the tag as he bats, bowls, fields, and keeps wicket when needed. AB acknowledges the love and support enjoyed in India in the chapter ‘Inspired by India’. He says, “It is difficult for me to understand how someone from rural South Africa can be so fortunate ...when he walks out to bat...in almost any ground in India, he can be greeted by thousands of happy people chanting his initials-A-B-D! A-B-D! A-B-D!” While scanning the autobiography, another facet of his character becomes clear de Villiers is a sportsman to the core, abhorring praise and quick to deflect it, but swift to praise his opponents. Source: The Asian Age ...............
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