ABP Exclusive: " Study Was One Thing He Never Liked", Recalls AB De Villiers' First Coach

How good was he in studies? " This is one thing he never liked". Did he hate Mathematics? " Not sure which subject he loved but he is good in calculating which balls to play in fine legs and get runs", smiled AB's first coach.

PAARL, SOUTH AFRICA - OCTOBER 18: AB de Villiers of the Proteas during the 2nd Momentum ODI match between South Africa and Bangladesh at Boland Park on October 18, 2017 in Paarl, South Africa. (Photo by Thinus Maritz/Gallo Images)

The school is known for producing sportsmen of world class pedigree across different sporting disciplines. The South African Cricket team captain Faf Du Plessis' was a product of this school, so was former cricketer Jaques Rudolph. Besides cricketing greats, the school has produced many Olympians as well. The name of the most distinguished alumni is still remains none other than AB De Villiers and people in Pretoria call the Affies school as the AB's school. What Ramakant Achrekar is for Sachin Tendulkar or Raj Kumar Sharma for Virat Kohli, Deon Boetas played the same role in AB's life and cricket career. The first coach of De Villiers, who is also a coach of the Affies school cricket team took us down memory lane. It was the batch of 1998 . Faf Du Plessis', AB De Villiers and Jaques Rudolph was part of it and the students were in class eight. Affies was up against Durban High School. "Hashim Amla was playing against us and they scored 170 batting first. When our turn to bat came we lost two quick wickets right at the start. Faf and AB was at the crease and the wicket was turning and Faf struggled. During a drinks break AB came to me and said please ask Faf to give me strike against the spinners. I told Faf to do it and then in one particular over of their best spinner Imran Ali, AB hit 2 sixes and a four. That changed the game".. The way Deon Boers described looked like it was as if yesterday. How good was he in studies? " This is one thing he never liked". Did he hate Mathematics? " Not sure which subject he loved but he is good in calculating which balls to play in fine legs and get runs", smiled AB's first coach. Arguably the greatest ever batsman of South Africa is still a man who is down to earth. Deon said, " He makes regular visits to the school and keeps a contact with the teachers. Few days back AB came for lunch. He remains the same man." There was one obvious question which came up. De Villiers is the only batsman in the world to be known for his 360 degree batting. He can play improvise and play shots everywhere in the ground. The South African batsman changed the grammar of the way the game is played. Did you encourage it at the school? " No we never. Rather we always had a conventional system. We encouraged them to play sweeps but never something like reverse sweeps or a scoop may be." But perhaps now a days the upcoming cricketers from the Affies school in Pretoria will learn their own way watching AB. South African Cricket Board is in talks to the greatest South African batsman of all time to come out of retirement and play the T20 World Cup for South Africa . Fans are eagerly waiting to see AB batting again for his national team .