AB’s focus is on winning, not milestone

AB De Villiers has grown from precocious teenager to perennial match-winner. Picture: Shailesh Andrade

AB De Villiers has grown from precocious teenager to perennial match-winner. Picture: Shailesh Andrade

Published Nov 13, 2015

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All week, AB de Villiers has been inundated with requests and engagements. The happy coincidence of his 100th Test falling at his adopted home, Bangalore, excited the sharp-eyed locals as soon as he missed the Bangladesh series for the birth of his son.

And so this stop of the Proteas tour was always going to be a mixture of business and sentiment. For De Villiers, the adulation is awkward. Even now, South Africa’s freakish batting superstar finds it awkward to talk about himself or his abilities, and prefers to let the bat make his statements.

“I wouldn’t have minded if the 100th Test match was anywhere else. I have never been about that kind of thing, planning things like that. It’s nice that it is in Bangalore, but my focus is not the 100th Test match. It’s winning this match and getting to one-all (in the series),” he said.

It wasn’t a put down on Bangalore’s efforts, or a diminishing of the rare feat of such a milestone. It was just typical De Villiers. He has made as much of an impression for his humility as his humiliation of bowling attacks across the world.

Over a career that reaches 100 Tests tomorrow, he has grown from precocious teenager to perennial match-winner. Through it all, he hasn’t allowed the spotlight that shines so vividly to be an excuse for excess. The team comes first.

“I read somewhere about the All Blacks saying that they don’t focus so much on the individual, but rather on making sure that the jersey is left in a better place for the guy who comes after you. That is what I am looking to do, too,” he said.

“The sun is only shining on us for a period, and there will be other players.”

In an age where many a youngster considers himself to have “arrived” the minute an IPL contract lands in his inbox, De Villiers, despite his fame and fortune, considers his work far from done at the highest level. He doesn’t want to be compared to anyone else, but he is driven by the passion to be the best AB he can be.

“I have watched highlights of Viv Richards, and he was just an incredible player,” he said when he was rated alongside the original king of batting swag.

“I don’t like being compared, because I never put myself on the pedestal. I just want to extend my current run of form as much as possible. But it always goes back to staying in the moment, which means winning this test. That is my only focus,” he said.

“I know there have been a lot of other distractions in the build-up to this match; my form, comparison to other players, and it being my 100th test. But all I want is to win this match.”

Press him a bit further on what drives him now, 11 years on from his test debut, and his answer again takes him back to the collective.

“A lot of my favourite memories are around winning away from home. It’s obviously very nice to win at home, in front of your own fans, but we as a team pride ourselves on what we have been able to do away from home for so many years,” he said. “So in this match, the motivation is easy.

“We want to square the series, because special things like that are enough of a drive for this team. If I can play my part in that, then I will be happy.

“Ultimately, we want to get to a point where we can dominate world cricket. That is the ultimate goal. So if we can do this, win a series in India, then that will be taking another step in the right direction to achieve that.”

And that, in essence, sums up De Villiers. The boy wonder who has morphed into the ultimate team man, all the while driven to be the best – and most destructive – force that he can be, in order to help take that team to new frontiers.

De Villiers may be turning 100 tests old tomorrow, in front of many friends and family, and he will receive many more accolades and well-wishes over the next few days. But for him, as it has always been, the most cherished moments will be confined to the heart of the away dressingroom at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.

There, amongst brothers he’s fought long and hard alongside, all over the cricketing globe he’s just one of the manne. And for this age’s brightest star, it’s the best feeling.

Aside from changing nappies, that is… - Cape Argus

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