Book Review - AB the Autobiography by A B de Villiers

This book was gifted to me because it's about my favourite cricketer, written by my favourite cricketer. But it turned out to be so much more.

I started watching cricket only in my teens which means I missed most of the amazing 2000s where there were six or seven really strong teams and the quality of cricket was high. I've always wanted to go back in time and watch a lot of these matches live. Little did I know that my wish would come true.

The book is an autobiography, recording the events till the 2015 World Cup. So there's not much to tell about the story except that it mostly deals with how de Villiers forged his career with a couple of personal excerpts as well as the triumphs of the South African team.

It took me quite sometime to finish this book because I had to constantly pause and go back and see the scorecards, highlights and other statistics. The tone of the book was quite light but it had detailed descriptions of various innings. And because he wrote about South Africa, it was heart-breakingly beautiful. Beautiful because it talks about how the team was rebuilt and how they became a force to reckon with. Heart-breaking because they are chokers. Every time he described an ICC event, I could feel the weight of the hopes and dreams that they carried and how it shattered every single time. So if you are a Proteas fan, it would be quite the emotional ride.

As mentioned before, this book was filled with snippets from all the action I missed and I really felt connected to the previous decade. Every tour of India and every IPL match brought a sense of familiarity but still managed to spark my interest as if I've not watched them before. Everything written about the Protea fire and how the sport helped the rainbow nation was really inspiring. AB's journey and philosophies were quite intriguing as well. I really loved one particular quote - " As the rollercoaster soars, the rollercoaster dips ". All this coupled with just the right amount of humor, makes this book an extremely entertaining read.

So thanks AB for making me fall in love with cricket, all over again.

Fun fact:- The first chapter of this book took place today (18/01) at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg exactly six years ago