- Shamser Khalid
AB de Villiers Pays Tribute to Hashim Amla
Following the announcement of Hashim Amla’s retirement from cricket, the cricket community had plenty to say. Among them is AB de Villiers, who penned a lovely tribute message and share it on social media.
"Hashim Amla.. where do I start?! Not easy," he wrote on Twitter. "Might take me a few days, weeks, months, years. I can literally write a book about you. Humaam, thank you for always being there for me. You’ve always been a brother who made me feel safe in so many ways.”
De Villiers also reminisced the moments spent on the field alongside teammate Amla and wished he could bat with the legendary cricketer one more time.
AB de Villiers is a former South African international cricketer who retired in 2021. During his 15-year international career, de Villiers was named ICC ODI Player of the Year three times. He also holds the fastest hundred by a South African in Tests and the fastest 50 by a South African in T20Is.
When you think of the South African cricket team, de Villiers is often associated with Amla due to their batting style, consistency, and personality.
Amla and De Villiers represented South Africa in many memorable matches during their playing days. While Amla and De Villiers were unable to break South Africa's World Cup duck, they did achieve greatness in 2012 by helping the team top the ICC rankings in all three forms of the game.
In addition to de Villiers, there were several other cricket players and clubs who shared tributes on social media.
Amla played his last international match in 2019 and represented Surrey in County Cricket till 2022. Because of this, Surrey put out a statement on the star batter’s retirement. The post read “Hashim Amla announces retirement from all forms of cricket. The legendary South African batter has declared his playing career over. From everyone at Surrey, thank you for everything, Hash.”
Meanwhile, the County Championship shared the video of Amla’s final boundary in the competition.
In addition to this, Surrey Cricket shared a few words from the player and thanked him.
Hashim Amla is one of the most decorated cricketers in South African history. He remains the only South African cricketer to score a triple century in Test cricket. In 124 Tests, Amla scored 9,282 runs at 46.41 with 28 centuries and 41 fifties.
Amla also registered 55 international hundreds, the sixth-most in history. In ODI cricket, he is the fastest man to reach 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, 5,000, 6,000, and 7,000 runs.
In addition to Surrey, Amla represented the Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League, plus the Kwa-Zulu Natal Dolphins and Cape Cobras in South Africa’s domestic competitions.
While he has retired as a player, it is understood that he could be in contention to become South Africa’s batting coach, under the nation’s new coaching structure. He has already embarked on a coaching career, with a stint as the Mumbai Indians Cape Town’s batting coach in the ongoing South African T20 League.
