AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis both had a knack of being troublemakers
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
It is no secret that South Africa batsman AB de Villiers and captain Faf du Plessis are the best of friends as they grew up together and attended the same school, Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool. But, while the duo seem to be the some of the most kind-hearted players in the sport, what were they like during their time at school?
Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool cricket coach Deon Botes revealed that while De Villiers has returned to the school on numerous occasions, Du Plessis has not been back since he graduated.
While the Pretoria-based school is no doubt proud about Du Plessis captaining South Africa in all three formats, Botes instantly recalled an incident where the 33-year-old broke into his hostel room.
“One fine day, Faf comes up to me and says that he cannot come for training because his kit bag was in his room and he couldn’t find the key,” Botes told CricketNext. “Being the naughty boy that he was, I was sure he didn’t feel like training.
“So I told him that he had to come for training and I didn’t care how. So, as expected, I see Faf right there with the rest of the boys. After training, I walk up to him and ask him how he got the keys to which he said he didn’t.
“So, I enquired about the kit bag and he said he broke in through the window. I was like but Faf you cannot do that and he is like, ‘But sir, you only said I had to be at the ground at any cost.’ Now what can you say to this? It shows that he was just as serious about the game as he was a rule-breaker.”
At Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool, students have to be spick and span when it comes to their uniform. However, Botes noted that Du Plessis hated wearing shoes.
“He would be sitting in the classroom without shoes. Why? He felt hot wearing shoes. Now what could be a possible comeback to that,” he said.
As for De Villiers, he was expelled from his boarding house after he was caught trying to woo a girl in the girls’ school down the road.
However, while De Villiers was concerned that he would have to move to another school, the headmaster at the time, Dr Pierre Edwards, was not going to let that happen, given how gifted of a sportsman De Villiers was.
“A new trend had started where the kids would speak to one another on radio,” Botes reminisced. “So now, AB was trying to talk to one of the students in the girl’s school down the road and as luck would have it, one of the parents was walking down from that place at the same time and the matter was immediately brought up and AB had to be expelled for this.”
While Botes didn’t want to say too much about De Villiers and Du Plessis’ younger days as cricketers, he did reveal what they started off as.
“When Faf came into the school team, he was a leg-spinner who also batted,” Botes said. “We really thought we would see him bowl more often, but as he rose up the ranks, batting became a priority. As for AB, he was a wicket-keeper who batted at number 8 to start with. It was much later that he started batting up the order.
“Also, AB thinks I liked Faf more, but that wasn’t the case. I love both of them. What AB doesn’t realise is that whenever I would need a player to save a game, I would call for Faf because AB with his flamboyant batting would give me a heart-attack.”