ABD's family reveal their son's preference of Cricket over other Sports

ABD’s family reveal their son’s preference of Cricket over other Sports: AB de Villiers is a masterclass. In his 100th Test, he proved this once again when he made a well compiled 85 on a pitch where his teammates couldn’t adapt and fell to Indian spinner’s tight bowling. On this special occasion, ABD’s family has also been present to witness his performance and were disappointed that he had to miss out on a well-deserved century. Yes, it’s disappointing… But that’s how cricket goes,” said Doctor AB senior, his dad. “I think he was chasing his hundred because wickets fell one after the other… But I think that score today was more important to him than making a hundred.”

He went into childhood memories of his son and recalled how his son was equally good at other sports before he took up cricket as a career. He said,”I used to think lying in bed at night that Ernie Els (prominent Golfer) would see this lad, because he’s striking the golf ball so magnificently. Later on, there was tennis as well.”

Interestingly, his dad wanted his son to focus on studies as AB came from an academic family! He said,”I would have loved him to have a degree”. But then added,”But this is much better.”

AB’s mother, Millie de Villiers meanwhile, always knew that he would choose a team sport over an individual one as AB was in her words,”very much a team man”.Millie said,”He’s not one who will do very well in individual sport as he will miss the guys around him. He actually made the decision to take up cricket based on that. He loved his friends, the house was always full of his mates. They were always playing games.”

Apart from his parents, AB’s wife Danielle and Junior AB were also present to witness this occasion.

The South African Coach also was amongst those who praised AB’s innings while criticized the poor batting from the other team members. Russell Domingo said,”AB played beautifully for his 85. It was a good pitch… We simply didn’t play well today.There were far too many soft dismissals. It’s a matter of taking the right decision and choosing the right option… We didn’t do that today.”

It must be noted that apart from Cricket, AB played the following sports at a decent level in his younger days when later he decided to excel in Cricket –

• Golf
• Tennis
• Rugby

As he played his 100th Test, here are some interesting records which AB accomplished –

• AB de Villiers became 7th South African, and 63rd overall, to play 100 Test matches.
• Bangalore played host to a visiting player’s 100th Test for the 2nd time after Inzamam-ul Haq played his 100th match on this ground, in March 2005 (he made 184 and Pakistan had won the Test).
• Of the seven South Africans who have played 100 Tests, Gary Kirsten (Auckland) and De Villiers (Bangalore) are the only ones to play the landmark match outside South Africa.
• De Villiers’ 85 is the second highest score by a South African playing his 100th Test. The highest is Greame Smith’s 131, vs England, at The Oval, in July 2012.
• De Villiers, when on 56, reached his 1000th run against India. He joins Jacques Kallis (1734) and Hashim Amla (1250) to become the third South African to make 1000-plus against India. De Villiers now has 1029 runs.