Times Media
TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg
If AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis start resembling each other, South Africans might worry. Until that happens, they should be grateful that they seem interchangeable as captains of SA’s short format teams.
De Villiers stepped into the breach when Du Plessis was ruled out of SA’s opening World T20 match, against Sri Lanka, with a hamstring injury. When Du Plessis was banned for the game against England because of a slow over rate, De Villiers stood in again.
In SA’s one-day series against New Zealand last January, it was De Villiers’ turn to fall foul of the over rate police once too often. No problem - Du Plessis bailed him out. Du Plessis had also assumed the leadership when De Villiers, then the T20 skipper, was rested for the rubber against the Kiwis.
When De Villiers recorded “Maak Jou Drome Waar” (Make Your Dreams Come True) with singer-songwriter Ampie du Preez in 2010, Du Plessis appeared in the song’s video. When Du Plessis married Imari Visser last November, De Villiers was his best man.
De Villiers and Du Plessis have been friends since long before they became fixtures in Affies’ first XI. They graduated from the famed Pretoria school in 2002, along with Heino Kuhn. All three play for the Titans.
“They’ve played with each for more than a decade, and they have a special bond,” Kuhn said yesterday. “You can see it when they’re running between the wickets together.
“They do get run out now and again, but mostly their communication is fantastic.
“The only downside about playing in the same side as them at Affies was that I used to bat at five and they used to bat above me. So there wasn’t a lot of batting to be done by the time I got to the crease.”
Kuhn said the friendship extended beyond the players themselves.
“Our parents all sat around the field together and had big braais together, so the families know each other very well.”
But there are also differences between De Villiers and Du Plessis, and they have been apparent since they were schoolboys.
De Villiers was always the more gifted player while Du Plessis stood out as the more adept captain. That distinction is still apparent.
Accordingly, Du Plessis captained Affies’ first XI ahead of De Villiers, who made the SA Schools XI for two years running.
While De Villiers has had to grow into his leadership role in 40 ODIs and 13 T20s as captain, Du Plessis has looked the part from the start of a tenure that now stands at two ODIs and 15 T20s.
That De Villiers is a better attacking batsman than the more stoic Du Plessis is no insult to the latter - there is no more confident, aggressive player in any format anywhere in the world than De Villiers.
Both players will be central to the selectors’ discussions on who will succeed Graeme Smith as SA’s test captain.
Happily for SA, they will both be part of the Proteas’ bid to win their World T20 semi-final against India in Dhaka today.
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