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Contributed by Venkatesh Govindarajan
17-Feb-2016 ( 45 views )
ABCDE: AB Can Do Everything
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
AB de Villiers would at once know why I have begun this piece with the first four lines of Psalm 91
from the Holy Bible. Reportedly, like Sir Walter Scott is said to have remarked, AB contends that the
Bible is the best book around. For a man who believes in fighting relentlessly and is proud of
donning South African colours, it comes as no surprise that “Gladiator” is his favourite film –
Maximus Decimus Meridius does not fail to motivate and inspire, no matter how many times you
watch him on screen.
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G Venkatesh (born 1972) is a
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2. Incidentally (if not intentionally), I am penning this piece a day before AB de Villiers turns 32 – his
first birthday after becoming a father (to another AB, incidentally). Quite interestingly, he was born
to another AB in 1984. Abraham, we know from the Old Testament. Benjamin, Abraham’s great
grandson, was the righteous thirteenth child of Jacob.
AB Can Do Everything. When you consider this acronym for a Bible-reading, God-fearing gentleman
from South Africa who primarily wields the willow, but has also donned the gloves, and runs 50
metres to gobble up skiers in the outfield, while offering truly inspiring and ‘likeable’ leadership at
the helm of an ethnically-diverse team of South Africans, you feel as if your own faith in your God
is being intensified… or if you are an atheist, you might feel like you could believe.
“
What exactly does that ‘Everything’ mean? Well, he bats, captains,
fields and keeps wickets; he has even been known to bowl, though he
doesn’t showcase this talent very often. He plays Test cricket, ODIs
and T20s, adapting without difficulties to all these formats. But then,
do not many crickets do that? So what is special about AB? He also
played hockey, football, rugby and tennis at the professional level
and is an adept swimmer. You bring the sine qua non for all these
diverse sports together, infuse a dose of creativity, and focus all that
on cricket.
”
The stick-feet-eyes coordination of hockey, the footwork and sheer power of soccer, the
indefatigability of swimming, the ‘do-or-die’ of rugby, the flexibility (charging in, backing up,
swerving away, capitalizing on faults) of tennis; these are all skills which have held him in good
stead. He is destined to pass them on to his wards later on when he eventually steps into his
coaching shoes.
The ‘Most complete player of the Modern Era,’ according to the Very Very Special Laxman.
Add the friendly, charming aspect of his personality (being an Aquarian helps perhaps), and you
have this truly amazing human being. His mother feels so proud of her son when she says that he
has endeared himself to the locals when he comes to Bengaluru to play for RCB. I chanced upon a
Youtube video in which AB sings the popular Sholay song, ‘Yeh dosti, hum nahin todenge…’
Modestly, naturally, he admits that his pronunciation may not be right, but listen to it and you
know he has worked hard to sing it right.
Recall what Aakash Chopra said jokingly about him: ‘I demand a DNA test of AB de Villiers…this
game is only for humans.’ Well, ‘truly amazing human being’ perhaps is how you could define an
extraterrestrial, especially if you would want to add him to the family of Homo Sapiens and feel
proud of the fact?
‘Is there anything he cannot do?’ This was how a friend of mine responded a video of AB I sent him.
The video was from the music album Maak Jou Drome Waar (Afrikaans for ‘Make your dreams
(come) true’), a joint venture between AB de Villiers and Ampie du Preez. A song dedicated to
Nelson Mandela clearly shows the impact the great man had on AB when he was growing up. He
was in school in Pretoria when Mandela became the President of an apartheid-free South Africa.
Even as we talk about this album, sample these lines from a song – Show them who you are -
sung by AB…
‘Do you feel the way I feel
Is there a fighter who can deal
With anything thrown in this direction…’
‘Show them who you are,’ does not display cockiness or arrogance of any kind. It is something
which the Indian saint-philosopher Swami Vivekananda, another spiritual man, would exhort
youngsters to do. That ‘anything’ could be a googly bowled by Shane Warne or a bouncer by Dale
Steyn or a yorker by Malinga, literally. Metaphorically, you would have guessed easily – it refers to
challenges in life.
HoldingWilley
Words will fall short if we
start to describe this
ingenious! Happy birthday
to the extraordinary
superhuman Abraham
Benjamin de Villiers!
SAvsENG# Superman#
Mr360#
1 hr
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3. ‘You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.’
- Psalm 91:5-7
There have been numerous occasions readers would instantly recall when AB has turned the tide
single-handedly, calmly and with the utmost composure. There would be a greater percentage of
readers who would remember his exploits for Royal Challengers Bangalore. ‘Explosively
dependable’ in the upper middle order, his tennis skills often coming in handy with those fours
and sixes – purely unconventional, from a cricketing point of view - in the Third Man-Long Leg
region.
Just as words keep getting added to the Oxford English dictionary, AB has made the job of the
cricket-lexicographer more exciting. ‘Changing the rules of the game,’ is what Rahul Dravid said
about him. After being smashed around on several occasions by AB in the IPL, Dale Steyn – his
South African teammate, had this to say, ‘There are only two games I dread – the two IPL Games I
play against this Guy’. The ‘G’ is intentionally capitalized, as Steyn stressed on that last word.
‘Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honour him.
With long life I will satisfy him’
- Psalm 91:14-16
For the sake of the gentleman’s game and for the sake of faith in virtuous conduct and adherence
to spiritual principles in life, you sincerely would pray to God to make sure that AB carries on for
another decade playing international cricket, and adds multiple feathers to his South African cap,
perching himself right on top in several rankings in the three forms of the game (on date, he has
notched up over 8000 runs in both Tests and ODIs, and over 4200 runs in all T20 matches…his
average is over 50 in the two longer versions of the game and a healthy 30+ in T20s).
Legendary fast bowler Bob Willis wants to challenge the notion that Sir Viv Richards was the best
batsman of all time, and considers AB to be a true contender for this epithet. The mantle of
captaincy in the longest format has finally fallen on him, and that does not seem to be affecting
his prowess with the bat one bit. God willing, that must continue…
Dr Rajgopal Nidamboor, who also writes for HoldingWilley, gave me the opportunity to write a
short chapter, for his book, on Jacques Kallis – another South African who will always be admired.
I was wondering, why not AB de Villiers? But de Villiers was only 28 at the time. A legend already,
but a still active one.
I often joke around with a Norwegian friend of mine, who has gifted me autobiographies &
biographies of sportsmen and with whom I share this love of sports in general, that I would
perhaps write the biography of some eminent sportsman someday.
A long shot, one may think… but maybe AB?
Next >>
Dravid, the Goliath
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2016-02-17http://www.holdingwilley.com/public/article.aspx?id=901
