AB de Villiers will be more popular than Sachin Tendulkar, says former South African cricketer

Fanie de Villiers believes that AB de Villiers belongs to the special Tendulkar category

Fanie de Villiers, feels that the South African One-Day captain is going to be more popular than Sachin Tendulkar in world cricket. At the beginning, he wasn’t too optimistic about South Africa’s chances on Indian soil but since then, the Proteas have won five out of seven games, comprehensively winning both the Twenty20 (T20) and the One-Day Internationals (ODI) series.

One of the primary reasons for their resounding victory has been AB de Villiers’ form, who has been leading from the front. When asked about what he thought of AB as a batsman and a captain, he was all praises for him, believing that he was destined to be in “the Sachin Tendulkar category.”

“Can I tell you something about AB de Villiers? AB is going to be more popular than Sachin Tendulkar in world cricket. That's the calibre of a person we are talking about; that's the cricketer we are talking about; that's the loveable, marketable player we are talking about. He is in the Sachin Tendulkar category. If you are in the Tendulkar category, when it comes to marketing the game of cricket, you are special,” he said to The Times of India.

“You can compare his records with Tendulkar; you feel this guy is even better than Tendulkar in ODIs. You can compare his popularity around the world and at home, he is in the category of Sachin Tendulkar. It's a privilege to be in that class or category on and off the field. He is very much the same as Tendulkar. He hasn't got tattoos, he hasn't got earrings; he hasn't got that flashy image. He is not a fashion freak and all that shows what kind of a character he is,” he further added.

Fanie suggested that top sportsmen do not need to have a flashy image to express their talent.

“The moment you start going for all those things, you develop a flaw in your personality. You are trying to show not what you are. AB hasn't got any of those things and Sachin had nothing of that either. Sampras had nothing of that, Federer had nothing of that. When you're a top sportsman like Sachin Tendulkar and AB de Villiers, you don't need to do anything like that. You are already very popular and that's a lesson for all those people full of tattoos, full of hair styles and full of earrings,” he said.

“They deprived AB of not captaining South Africa in all formats”: Fanie de Villiers

He was hardly surprised when the Indian crowd cheered for the swashbuckling batsman. “Who else do the Indian public cheer for as much as AB? Not many. AB is that sort of cricketer.”

He sounded disappointed that de Villiers was not the captain for all three formats. “He should have been Test and T20 captain as well. They deprived AB of not captaining South Africa in all formats. ODI cricket is always difficult but I think you can truly rate the captain in Tests. There are too many variables in ODI cricket. I know for the fact that players enjoy AB's company more than anybody else; players will support him more than anybody else; he is good enough to be a captain; he is the marketing icon of South African cricket and that is the captain. The captain is just judged on how good he is on-field, off the field, has marketing appeal and experience. He has got everything,” he observed.