Johannesburg – Hashim Amla doesn’t want to engage in the fanfare around his 100th Test, choosing to quietly go about his preparations and leave it up to teammates and rivals to talk about the value he’s added over the course of a stellar 12 year international career.
The 33 year old Amla will become the eight South African player to start 100 Tests when he steps onto the Wanderers on Thursday and plaudits have been coming in from former teammates, current ones and old rivals.
“I grew up playing schools cricket against him, him for DHS (Durban High School) me for King Edwards. I’ve always know him as a great player. He’s a fantastic person, that’s the most important thing," Stephen Cook said at the Wanderers Tuesday.
Cook reflected on his Test debut, a year ago at Centurion, when he and Amla shared a partnership of 202 against England, with both scoring centuries. “You’re a person first and a cricketer second. He epitomises that and it’s been great to share various dressing rooms with him, from him captaining me at under-19 to 15 years later playing Test cricket with him. On my debut I got to bat with him for a long period of time. He’s such a welcoming person, a voice of calm, when situations are tricky. When people needed to be grounded a bit, he’s the voice of reason. He brings a lot of confidence to the group.”
Even though Amla has been struggling to convert starts into big scores lately, Cook said he’s never shied away from assisting his teammates. “Although he didn’t score a lot in Australia the impact on the other guys was immense. The experience of the different wickets how to deal with the Australians and varieties of the difficulties, was a big help to someone like me. Whether he scores nought or a hundred, he’s one of those guys he goes to the crease and he’s already started on 30 because that’s what he’s added in value before he goes out to bat.”
To Wayne Parnell, Amla’s been a rock in terms of support. “Hashim’s been amazing. Throughout my international career, when things have gotten tough I could always confide in him. He’s been like a brother to me on tour. He’s an awesome team man, I wish him the best,” said Parnell.
From the Sri Lankan camp the respect is undeniable, but they’re keenly aware about his poor recent run. “Amla is a brilliant, brilliant player, you can only get to 100 Tests if you are brilliant like him,” said Dhananjaya de Silva. “But he’s also not been in form and hopefully we can keep it that way in this Test.”