AB De Villiers Releases his Autobiography; Labels sports laurels as ‘Myth’

“I walked out there to bat and the entire crowd was cheering ‘AB! AB!’ and chanting so loud that I could not even hear myself talk.It was happening in the whole series, but then it hit me really hard that I was very far away from home and here the people were supporting me like I was their own, yet I was playing against their own,” said AB De Villiers on the love he gets in India.

AB de Villiers, whose book got a huge Pre-Launch response in India released here on 8th September 2016. The Autobiography shells out many stories about him, his team-mates and also refutes many rumours and myths that were there and glorified him.

According to his memoir, everything about AB except the cricketing stories is a myth or a lie to say so. He dispelled all of them. Everyone must have read or heard about it. First Being, De Villiers holds six national school swimming records, but he says “As far as I recall, I did set an Under-9 breaststroke record at Warmbaths Primary School but I have never held any national school swimming records, not even for a day.“

The South African cricketer also denies being a national U-19 badminton champion. “If my memory is correct, I have only ever played one game of badminton in my entire life, and that was just a fun game with Mark Boucher,“. Another Story of receiving a national medal from Nelson Mandela for a science project, the Proteas Captain writes “I never undertook any science project of any significance, certainly not to attract the attention of the President “. He added that he had met him twice but, “both times as a member of the Proteas squad“. He also cleared the air about him being shortlisted for the South African national hockey squad in school. He only played hockey for one year at high school. “We used to kick a ball around during break at school and the game has become part of the Proteas’ warm-up routine. That’s all.”

He recalled that he was never selected in the South African national football squad. And Rumour about him being the captain of the South African junior rugby team, he dismissed it by saying “I never played rugby beyond my high school days.”

The one and only myth AB says is almost true is regarding tennis. “Almost” because he was never selected in Davis cup team but he did play the sport. De Villiers said “I did play tennis as a youngster, loved the game and was occasionally ranked as the national No 1 in my age group.“

The book helps you to know who the “Superman AB” really is.  It has some interesting stories about people surrounding him and teammates. Do you know that Graeme Smith is scared of ghosts? The Story of disappointment in WC 2015 Semifinal, the love he gets in India, IPL Saga, The best Test knock he has ever seen and how he backs Test Match.

The book in Blurb says ” De Villiers has scored more than 14,000 runs in 98 Tests for South Africa”, The Fact is The Proteas ODI and Test Captain has scored over 8,000 runs from 106 Test matches!

All in all the book is a perfect read for cricket lovers and especially his fans to know the various ups and downs the superman of cricket has gone through.