Who is AB de Villiers?

AB De Villiers, a former South African international cricketer, is collaborating with Make a Difference (MAD), a well-known Indian NGO for underprivileged children, to help impoverished children reach their full potential as professionals.

“India has been incredibly kind to me over the years, and I am always looking for ways to give something back. I am happy to be associated with MAD and will mentor two young people supported by the team. The NGO offers consistent support to children born into extremely difficult circumstances until they break the cycle of poverty. Their work is incredible,” AB de Villiers stated.

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Who is AB de Villiers?

Abraham Benjamin de Villiers is a former South African cricketer. AB de Villiers was named ICC One-Day International Player of the Year three times in his 15-year international career and was named one of the five Wisden cricketers of the decade at the end of 2019. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketers in history.

He was born on February 17, 1984, in Bela-Bela, South Africa, to Abraham B de Villiers and Millie de Villiers. He has two older brothers, Jan de Villiers and Wessels de Villiers. He described his childhood as a “really relaxed lifestyle up there, where everyone knows everyone.” He attended Afrikaanse Hor Seunskool in Pretoria with teammate Faf du Plessis, who was and still is a good friend. He is a high school graduate. His father was a doctor who had played rugby union in his youth and encouraged his son to participate in sports as a child.

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Although AB de Villiers started out as a wicketkeeper-batsman in the international game, he has mostly played as a batsman. He batted around the batting order, primarily in the middle of the order. De Villiers is renowned for a variety of unconventional strokes, particularly behind the wicket-keeper. He is regarded as one of the most creative and destructive batsman of the modern period as well as one of the greatest of all time.

He played in his first One Day International (ODI) in early 2005 after making his debut in a Test match against England in 2004. In 2006, he made his Twenty20 International cricket debut. He is one of the very few batsmen to have a batting average of over fifty in both forms of the game and has over 8,000 runs in both Test and ODI cricket. He is an offensive player in cricket’s limited overs format. In just 31 balls, he set the record for the quickest ODI century.

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De Villiers led South Africa in all three formats, albeit he gave up the test leadership due to a string of ailments. He stopped leading the national limited-overs matches in 2017 and declared his retirement from all international cricket in May 2018. De Villiers did, however, indicate interest in returning to international competition and competing in the 2020 T20 World Cup in January 2020, however it was eventually made clear that he would not. De Villiers declared his retirement from all forms of cricket on November 19, 2021.