The Irish connection to AB de Villiers
AB De Villiers was 20 years old when he was offered a playing role for Carrickfergus CC, a club based out of Ireland which had just gained promotion to the topmost division of the Irish league. Roger Bell, an influential man in the club, convinced them to sign a young South African batsman who he had seen scoring 143 against an England team in the U-19s.
The move would shape the kind of person AB De Villiers would be. Being on his first overseas assignment which would span over a month, the experience would teach De Villiers invaluable lessons in responsibility and self-dependence. Calling back on his time in Ireland, De Villiers told Cricbuzz “I was quite nervous and scared of being so far away from home. This was the first time I was planning to stay overseas for longer than a month. It was pretty tough to get used to being on my own, many miles away from home.”
De Villiers arrived in the country on the day of the game. There was uncertainty surrounding his availability for the game. However, at the news of his flight having landed, the management of Carrickfergus CC wasted no time in including his name in the playing eleven. De Villiers ended up scoring an 82-ball 85 on a tough surface, an innings during which he would meet his roommate for the duration of his stay in Ireland, Barry Cooper, for the first time. "The first time I met him was literally when he walked out to bat," recounts Cooper. "It was like, 'OK, hi. How you doing? I'm Barry'. It was a stinker of a wicket, wet, doing a fair bit, and slow going. I said, 'I know you've probably never played on a wicket like this in your life. I know you're going to want to impress. But you're just not going to be able to play the shots that you're used to playing. Let's just see how we go here.' He spooned a few up and was nearly caught at mid-off in his first few balls. But he adapted.”
The ability of AB De Villiers was already evident at that age. "Their overseas pro was Ijaz Ahmed Jr, who played a couple of Test matches for Pakistan," recalls Cooper, who would himself bat through for 87 not out. "He came on with his off-spin and I said to AB: 'This guy is going to be near impossible to get away. It's a tough wicket and he's not going to bowl any bad balls. We'll nurdle him, and if we can get 20 off his 10 we'll worry about the rest later'. AB obviously took that as a bit of a challenge and in his first over skipped down the wicket and stuck him back over his head for six. Twice. That was the first time I remember thinking to myself: this boy's a bit special.”
De Villiers’ nonchalance and him playing proper cricketing shots and yet scoring quickly was on full display even during a young age; a trait which would make him world class. "The thing is that he was never slogging," says Cooper. "It never looked like he was taking a risk, even when he came down the wicket and hit a six, you know. It wasn't how most people come down the wicket and hit a six.
AB De Villiers got his first taste of international cricket at the senior level when he was called up to play for the South Africa A team to play against Zimbabwe. His teammate Ally McCalmont narrates the events on the night when AB received the call from the selectors. "We were sitting in his living room at Barry's when the phone rang," recalls McCalmont. "It was passed to AB and he took the call calmly, not saying much for around 10 or 15 minutes, then politely said 'thank you' and hung up. He had gone pale. Naturally, we asked what it was about. He explained it was the South Africa 'A' selectors and that he'd been picked to represent them for the first time, in Zimbabwe. He said, 'What am I going to do?' We didn't understand what the issue was. 'I have a contract with Carrickfergus,' he said. Both me and Barry started laughing, but he was deadly serious. The fact that he even for a second thought that he could turn down South Africa 'A' out of loyalty to this small club he'd only just joined spoke volumes. It goes without saying that his mind was set straight almost immediately when we talked it through."
One could be forgiven for player’s concentration to be off after a major leap in the career, but De Villiers did not let that get to his head. With two more games to go before his assignment ended, De Villiers scored 233 of his team’s 308 runs in a LOI, a feat which had not been achieved in the history of Northern Irish cricket. If that was astounding, he would go on to repeat it in the next game, scoring 208 off 161 deliveries. De Villiers had achieved something no one had done in history and repeated it twice in eight days. "It took me some time but by that stage I really just felt settled in," says de Villiers.
A decade and a half later, looking back at his time in Ireland, ”I felt like I was part of the club and that I had my own special place in Carrick. Once you get that feeling in any set-up, you can then just focus on being yourself and performing to your full potential. It was the perfect way to sign off.”, says de Villiers.
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