Published: Sep 01, 2016, 06:15 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 02, 2016, 03:49 AM (IST)
South Africa’s Test and ODI skipper AB de Villiers’ autobiography will soon be out in the market. The book, titled ‘AB: The Autobiography’, which was launched in Johannesburg on Thursday, has a chapter called “The Dream” which is an account of South Africa’s heartbreaking campaign during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. The Protea team lost the semi-final against New Zealand on the final ball, thus sending a million dreams packing. The said chapter in de Villiers’ book deals with it and explains what went wrong for South Africa. ALSO READ: AB de Villiers to launch “AB: The Autobiography” on September 8.
The talismanic batsman regards the defeat to New Zealand as the “greatest disappointment” of his cricket career and believes there could have been “other considerations” in the selection of the XI that took the field for that match in March 2015. It is notable here that in that crucial tie, ‘Black’ Vernon Philander replacing the in-form Kyle Abbott had created huge furore. Cricket South Africa (CSA) had later said transformation targets were part of pre-match discussions, but de Villiers’ revelation is perhaps the first time any of the players involved in that match has spoken out.
AB has revealed in his soon-to-be-out book that South African players kept a collective diary during the tournament in which players made daily entries, believing that South Africa could lift the trophy. After winning their first-ever World Cup knock-out match against Sri Lanka, it was “generally assumed” within the group that the same team would play against New Zealand. The team that played the quarter-final had three players of colour in Hashim Amla, JP Duminy and Imran Tahir. Throughout the tournament South Africa had played between three and five players of colour in their matches but it was only before the semi-final that the team got a specific instruction on playing a ‘Black’.
Half an hour before South Africa’s team meeting on the eve of that all-important game, de Villiers got a call from the person he does not wish to name to tell him that Philander had passed a fitness test earlier and would play instead of Abbott. De Villiers, who understood very well that it was a norm for the incumbent player to walk straight into the XI after he returned to fitness, explains the situation was not that easy as it looks. His narrative suggests he was perhaps confused as to whether there was a quota at play, since the national selectors made sure they provided opportunities for at least four players of colour, or the selectors and management genuinely felt that Philander would do well in New Zealand conditions.
“So what had happened? Had Vernon, who was officially classified as coloured, been selected ahead of Kyle, who was officially white, to ensure there were four players of colour in the semi-final? Or had the decision been made for purely cricketing reasons?” the book quotes De Villiers, who does not answer those questions himself. Instead, in the book, he writes down the impact it had on him. “It depressed me to think of my team-mates in these outdated racial terms,” he writes. “‘Would anyone really mind if there were three or four players of colour in our side?” READ: Dale Steyn jumps to No.1 spot in ICC Test bowlers rankings.
He further mentions in the book what his first thought in the morning was, “I hope Vern will be OK”, but he vowed not to overreact because “I still don’t know for certain what happened”. De Villiers convinced himself to treat it as “just another obstacle to be overcome”. South Africa lost the match on the final ball and de Villiers blamed the defeat on their failure to take “five clear opportunities … three possible run-outs and two catches”, and not on the selection saga. “We didn’t lose because of the decision to replace Kyle with Vernon,” he writes.
After the World Cup, de Villiers was devastated. He cried on the field and later in the change room when he saw his family. Having already been a part of three failed campaigns, he goes on to describe the losses in other two as well. While 2007 loss was a result of “simply trying too hard”, he does not offer many reasons for the 2011 loss to New Zealand but reveals that then-captain Graeme Smith warned the team that, when they got home, “daggers and stones will be thrown”. Smith did not make the trip back with the team.
De Villiers also maintains in the book that winning a World Cup for South Africa is his “burning ambition”, which suggests he may play a fourth edition of the tournament, in 2019. “It will never be much fun until a Proteas team finally goes out and wins one of these ICC limited-overs tournaments. That will happen one day,” he writes in the book.
