Sat, Feb 28 2015 by Garfield Robinson
AB de Villiers smashed a 66-ball 162* against West Indies on
Friday. © AFP
I know this will be viewed as heresy in some quarters but AB de
Villiers is the best batsman there has ever been. Better than
Tendulkar and Lara. Better than Viv and Sobers. Better than
Gavaskar. Better than the three Ws. Better than Hammond, Hutton,
Hobbs and Headley. Better, even, than Bradman. That is my position
and I am sticking with it.
Before I am summarily dismissed as a heretic let me try and
explain. De Villiers is history's best batsman in the same way that
Usain Bolt is the history's best sprinter.
As a general rule, sporting performances have improved with time.
Modern living and improvements in training methods and
technology has allowed today's athletes to reach levels in their
sports of which their predecessors could not even dream.
In 1936, Jesse Owens sprinted to the 100M world record in Chicago
in 10.2 seconds. Today, the record stands at 9.58, placed there by
Bolt at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin,
Germany. This means that Bolt would have finished all of 21 feet
ahead of Owens had they competed in the same race.
Athletic prowess flows from genetic gifts, practice, and equipment
quality. Since there is really no control over the first, as of now at
least, it is improvements in the other two that has been mainly
responsible for progress in athletic performance. Superior footwear,
better nutrition, and quicker running surfaces, for instance, have all
served to push track athletes to faster times. The tweaking of
technique, such as when Dick Fosbury introduced his Fosbury flop
to the world in late 1960s, often trigger significant forward
movement in sporting performance.
The rise of the Twenty20 cricket has spawned batting innovations
that have transformed the game. The Dilscoop, the reverse-sweep,
the switch-hit, shots mostly absent from the game two decades
ago, are today played in most limited overs games and are showing
up more and more in tests.
Viv Richards stepped to off to flick the final ball of the West Indies
innings for six in the 1979 World Cup final against England. He
walked off the field, he claimed, thinking, "that shot is my own
invention." That kind of innovation is commonplace in today's
game. Cricket has changed.
A little over a month ago, on January 18th, de Villiers battered the
West Indies in a barely believable display of batting that saw him
score the fastest 50 and fastest century in ODIs on his way to 149.
During the 19th match of ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 at the Sydney
Cricket Ground South Africa's captain repeated the dose, once again
totally devastating the West Indies bowling for 162 runs off just 66
deliveries.
Now, the West Indies does not posses the strongest bowling attack
around, but I daresay there is no bowling that would've contained
de Villiers in that kind of mood. Before this tournament is over, I
am willing to wager that we will see him do to others what he did to
the West Indies. At his best he is unstoppable and I doubt there is a
bowler able to keep him quiet for any extended period.
Bowl wherever you like or at whatever pace; when on song he will
still find a way to take full toll. His 360 degrees scoring range
means there is no area of the ground that the fielding team can
safely neglect, though the ease with which he clears the boundary
regularly renders fielders redundant.
Admittedly, de Villiers is not the only batsman of which that may be
said to some degree. Alongside him are players like Chris Gayle,
David Warner, Virat Kohli, James Faulkner, Brendon McCullum, Andre
Russell among others. Batsmen, on the whole, have gotten better at
cultivating runs. But de Villiers has become the most effective run-
gatherer of them all.
No batsman playing today, indeed none that has ever played, is
capable of the outrageousness that he showed against the West
Indies, and had shown before against other opponents. His own
countryman, Dale Steyn, frequently cited as the game's best bowler,
was not spared his aesthetic fury when they met in 2014 edition of
the Indian premier League (IPL).
Now, I'm not saying de Villiers is more gifted player than the
eminent names previously mentioned. Who knows, were they
playing today some of them might have been even better. One
quality all great performers posses is the ability to adapt. The great
players of yesteryear would have been great today.
Through aptitude and practice de Villiers has become a past master
of contemporary batting the past master. He destroys attacks as a
matter of course, and does it with a degree of artistry and aplomb
that few batsmen can summon. Though he cruelly dismantles
opponents, he goes about his business with nary a hint of violence;
and the destruction he wreaks is done without rancour. Perhaps you
could think of him as the man who strips you of all your money and
all your clothing, yet sends you on your way with a kind word.
After a rather quiet start to the World Cup, cricket's most powerful
giant is now wide awake. Opponents should take this as a warning.
source : www.cricbuzz.com/
