INTERVIEW

Frankly Fanie

by Kaushik Rangarajan • Last updated on

Fanie de Villiers lost much of his cricket due to the apartheid movement and made his international debut only at 29. © Getty

He is the second-best de Villiers to play cricket for South Africa. The one with a quirky action and a wonderful outswinger, Petrus "Fanie" Stephanus de Villiers was a medium-fast bowler with a fast-bowler's mindset. He may have lost a bulk of his career due to the apartheid movement. Yet, nothing could come in the way of his holistic development. He studied to be a professor, joined the army, played cricket on the sidelines and when South Africa were readmitted to the international circuit, he seamlessly walked into the national side and picked up 85 Test wickets from 18 Tests at a mean average of 24.27. This included a dream five-fer against Australia in the epic five-run victory at SCG in 1994.

In the ODIs, he was the early master of the variation - a quick off-cutter - that constantly got the better of Sachin Tendulkar. One of the earliest Afrikaans speaking cricketer to play in the post-apartheid era, Fanie overcame language barriers to make a mark in a game dominated by English-speakers in the country. Perhaps one of the most enduring images of Fanie is from the 1996 World Cup, when he used his armpit to shine the ball. He tells Cricbuzz about how he was a judge alongside Amitabh Bachhan when Aishwarya Rai won the Miss World title in 1994 at Sun City.

Excerpts:

How did your cricket career start?

We were amateurs. I went to school in a country-side school. I was a javelin thrower, played a little-bit of rugby. And went to study. When I studied, I had the opportunities to make the university teams, the South Africa colleges side. But at [the] age [of] 21, I was the second-best javelin thrower in the country at [in] that age-group. Javelin gave me a quick arm. But I just gave javelin up to focus on cricket. I like team games. There wasn't much money in those days but cricket has a friendly team atmosphere, whereas tennis, javelin are individual games. I enjoyed the social side of the game more. I [have] always taken something on 100% like most but with an academic background, where you start analysing, from the science to the knowledge on muscle and endurance and everything that goes with it.

So you were always the scholarly type... where did cricket fit in?

I did study to be a teacher. I finished my studies and started playing proper cricket much later. We had apartheid. I could only bowl my first ball in anger when I was 29. I played against England in the Rebel Tour against the Mike Gatting XI [in 1989-90]. The experience of playing nothing to playing with Clive Rice, Jimmy Cook and all those legends was completely different. Because you are a young boy... just playing with these guys is much bigger than playing against the opposition. Sitting in the same dressing room wondering, 'When am I going to ask him for his autograph'... it was brilliant. That's where things came together. All the hard work, the thinking, the pro-activeness - not drinking or fishing, not hunting or womanising. Because now you are playing a practicing art.

You don't see too many cricketers interested in academia...

All of us develop our own characters through climate, landscape, your atmosphere, your locality, what you study, your parents, your recent history, past history... That's all part of character building and who you are. That gives you probably a more well-rounded individual than a young guy who plays cricket straight after school, then gets into the academy, into the midst of the same level of IQ, and they just stay there. They don't develop. We started playing at 29. We had the university degree of life, we had that before we played international cricket. That made us different from the guys playing now.

These young guys in the system, in those days, if I said to them, 'Let's go and see Mother Teresa', they would have been, 'Who's Mother Teresa? Who's Gandhi?' At 29, you know all those things. That probably differs you a little bit from the rest of the pack. And remember, seven-eight of us when we started playing were all between 29 and 33 years old. Ambassadorship and perception, everything was different compared to some modern-day 21-22-23 years old.

Did you go meet Mother Teresa?

Yes. Before I got to India, I knew the street names, I knew the people, who they were, the streets that were named after. From the forts to the statues, all the colonial history. I knew about everything from A-Z. That made me a 'Tommy Tourist'. I phoned Mother Teresa: 'Can I please come visit you? She said, 'Please come and have Tea.' I asked others in the South African team and they weren't interested. Only Pat Symcox joined me. If you are interested, you are proactive. If you are proactive, you can take anything to the next level. You don't do what everybody else [does], you have to start being inquisitive. It's one of the biggest talents you can always have.

I like reading and knowing what the hell is going on. The book I'm reading now is on Israel, on the most highly decorated officer ever in the history of Israel. Because I'm a teacher, it's probably natural to be inquisitive.

De Villiers studied to be a professor and played proper cricket much later in life. ©Getty

Were you aware of the political climate at home?

No, we weren't. Everything was with the media. The media was state controlled, by the system. And the perception then was that they (Black Africans) were doing their own things, their own jobs in their own schools. But it's probably sad to say that there's more animosity now perception wise than ever before. We've got 27% people without work. That's terrible.

What was cricket like in this situation?

Nyah nyah. Those days there were no international cricket, no international rugby. There was nothing. Our local cricket was the ultimate. It was very strong. Imagine Kohli playing every single time for Delhi. How good the players around him will become. Because Kohli is not just a successful man. He is excellence. They see a benchmark. So the way he thinks, the way he trains, the way he walks, the way he markets is all at the highest level. If everyone can latch on that, the system will lift. So South African cricket was very strong when we all played provincial.

And you joined the army...

I did two years [of] army training. I signed for one year but ended up doing another year, I became a lieutenant. I worked at the sports offices. All of us who were graduates weren't allowed to go to the borders. The government couldn't afford graduates to get killed. So all the 17-18-19 year olds who didn't study, they went to the border.

You still nearly lost an eye in a freak incident?

Ya, but it was the whitewash that you use for marking fields. They bleached a different lime, and with water it evaporates and it exploded in front of me. I can't read anything with this eye (right). Even long distance, I can just see guys running around but I can't focus. Because the surface of my right eye is like the moon, full of craters. But the left eye is good, I can still work with it.

Were you taught about the struggle of Nelson Mandela in school?

No, of course not. Why would they do it? We had no idea. I went to play cricket at the age of 21 in England, and one guy asked me about Mandela, and I didn't know who he was! At 21 years old, I was a student, studying for degree - and I had no idea!

What was his reaction?

He was obviously puzzled. I said to him, 'We're not fighting, we're not shooting each other.' There were lots of black people living in town, although by the laws they weren't allowed in certain areas. They had their own houses, their own businesses and own things. There wasn't any animosity. We never saw fighting or screaming or shouting or anything of that sort. So when that question came, I was like 'what is he talking about'?

So you moved to England at 21. Why?

My dad said, 'Why don't you go and find out a little bit more about the world. Let's get you a club contract, you're good enough to play. Go and find out what life is about.' I played for Todmorden in the Lancashire League.

What was that experience like? Language must have been a massive barrier...

I was useless. I had to fend for myself with a few English words, that was it. I grew up on a farm, I had no idea of English. They all thought I was stupid, IQ level wise, because I couldn't communicate well. But it was a wonderful experience. It's like taking a boy out of the countryside in India who knows 10 words, and sending him to England.

How did you bridge the gap?

If you're good enough in sports, it helps. It breaks down barriers quickly. People say, 'I want you in my team'. You understand that and that's when you become popular.

How did you add the off-cutter to your armoury?

In 1990, I played county cricket for Kent. For that season, they had reduced the seam on the Dukes ball and made it a thinner thread. The previous year it was a wet summer, and every bowler took wickets, so they said let's reduce the seam. And 1990 was the driest summer ever in England since 1976. And we couldn't swing the ball. So I had to bowl off-cutters. From ball one, I bowled cross-seam, off-cutters that stayed low. So I just bowled off-cutters and repetition and muscle memory trained me to do that all day. That's why I got all those wickets in Australia in Sydney. Shane Warne got 13-14 wickets in the match. (Among pacers) I was the only one who could bowl variations. The left-handers became my target, I'd be like 'Oh left-hander, give me the ball.'

How did Tendulkar become your 'bunny'?

Myself and (Manoj) Prabhakar used to speak. About what are we going to do? I said: 'One-Day cricketers are lining us up.' 'We need to do something,' Prabhakar told me. 'I'm bowling quick-arm spinners to warm-up,' I said to him. 'I've also tried to bowl a little bit of an off-cutter to get LBWs to take the swing away. You couldn't get LBW if the ball swings. And I said to him, 'Can you bowl that with a full run-up?' He said: 'I don't know, we can try.'

So he went to practice and I went to practice. I tried it in the nets. I ran in and bowled a quick spinner. And it worked. My batsmen were saying "What are you doing? Flippin bowl properly. 'What the hell are you doing?' I said to Prabhakar, I won't tell my players if you don't tell yours. In the next game in Dubai, Tendulkar hit it straight up. Poof. Straight to mid-wicket. That's where we began those off-cutters. Prabhakar did it too.Five years later, I think Andrew Caddick also bowled a beautiful off-cutter. It's about being one-step ahead of the pack. That's variation.

De Villiers loved his share of fun on the cricket field (with umpire Dickie Bird in this picture) ©Getty

You also bit David Shepherd's ear in England...

The Rugby World Cup was going on and [Johan] Le Roux bit New Zealand captain [Sean] Fitzpatrick's ear. He was bleeding. And he said 'Barbaric South African'. And it was the day before [my match]. During the game, I bowled and appealed for an LBW and David Shepherd said to me, 'Not out'. When I walked back I told him, 'You know people's ears get bitten off for much lesser than what you've done against me now'.

As I walked away I thought, 'I'm going to bite him'. About three or four balls later, I thought, 'If I'm going to bite him, I need to go past him and then turn around and bite him. I am going to get fined, maybe 10 grand, so must make worthwhile. I'm going to bite him, hold on to his ear and tell my mates, 'See what I've done,' and then we're going to have a laugh, because then it's worthwhile to get fined. I turned around and remember grabbing him and I bit him. I remember the salt in my mouth... Old people's ears keep growing! I bit him and I held on and he said, 'Eh'. And I thought, 'He's not screaming,' so I went harder and he went, 'Aaargh'. And everybody had a laugh about it.

The next day at breakfast, he threw the paper on the table in front of me, The Sun, with a photograph of me biting him. You can see his ear stretched out far! And he said, 'You're a good sport, de Villiers'. And he signed it and gave it to me, then went to have his own breakfast with his wife.

And I got fined 10 grand. They said I brought the game in disrepute. But it was still worthwhile!

Then there was Sydney 1994, your greatest Test match and the banter with Tony Greig...

He said, 'We had a one in a million chance to win the match', and we won that one. We've been friends for many years. We didn't really talk about that, but his comment was doubled-up on interviews all the time. I didn't know about his comment, I saw it on the highlights. I lived in the gym. I could bowl 15 overs. That Sydney match in Australia, I bowled 16 overs on the trot. Fast bowling is 20 percent bowling, 80 percent muscle and endurance.

You were also at Sun City in 1994 on a very important judging panel...

Yes, the 1994 Miss World pageant. Myself, Amitabh Bacchan, Josie... (Mrs Calvin Klein), Ridge Forrester and one of the old Miss Venezuela-Miss World. I was the most popular sportsman in South Africa in 1996. And they were looking for a local. Aishwarya Rai, I think won the award.

How did you perfect your outswinger?

I had to work on it. All my senior players told me - 'Don't keep doing that (bowling the inswinger).' Allan Donald has got the pace to do that (inswing). You haven't got the pace to do that, so you have to bowl to the slips. If you watch the game, if there's no swing taking place, the moment someone bowls it wide outside off stump it swings. It's because the ball can swing. You run in, it doesn't swing. You turn the ball around, doesn't swing. You move the ball in the hand, it doesn't swing. Then you think, 'Sh*t, the ball isn't swinging.' Then you run in and bowl a Test delivery - a wide. If that swings, that means, the ball can swing and my bowling action can swing the ball wide. Now I just need to change my angle to get the swing right. Who's coaching that these days? You can coach swing bowling. It's a finesse. How many right-handers can swing the ball away to a right-hand batsman. But the moment they bowl to left-handers, they cannot swing it in for LBWs. They bowl straight. Because it's all about learning angles... [Dale] Steyn, [Vernon] Philander, [Morne] Morkel - everyone bowls that line. The only players who kept getting it in were Makhaya Ntini and Andre Nel. They were great with getting tailenders. But for top-batsmen, we have to get it to leave right-handers.

Then are other things important. I saw recently. Mohammed Shami runs into bowl. He bowls a full delivery on off stump and gets driven for four through extra cover. He knew he was going to bowl a a full delivery because he wants the guy driving and hopefully get a nick. But his mid off stands still. I used to turn around saying to mid-off, listen I'm going to bowl a full delivery, walk out, when I start running, walk sideways left. If he drives it , the fielder is seven metres that way and he stops it. Same with mid-on for a off-cutter if you are going with the LBW. When it comes to how you think, how you bowl, makes you a good bowler. I think coaching for away swing bowling is the most scarce commodity in cricket these days. People don't know. Those days, it was myself, Kapil Dev, Manoj Prabhakar, DeFreitas. Anderson now. There've been only a few that have worked out the ideology of swing bowling.

Going to the 1996 World Cup - one of the enduring images of that tournament is the sight of you shining the ball under your armpit... Why did you do it?

There was no rule against it. What happens in reverse swing is you shine the shiny side with spit and sweat and whatever the case may be. If you wet it too much, it stops swinging. Because it becomes heavier and works against the swing. And when it stops swinging, that's when you wet that side even more to start reverse swing.

They tried to stop me, I said, 'There's no rule. Put it in the rulebook'. There was no rule saying I can't do it. I said 'Fine me, but you can't fine me, there's no rule'.

But what about hygiene?

What's less hygiene? Spitting or this? This is better than bloody spit! You can't talk about hygiene when everyone's spitting on their fingers and putting them on the ball.

Finally, how do you think transformation has affected cricket in South Africa?

If I was in their shoes, I would have probably done the same, to enhance growth. If it's fair, that's debatable. If it's fair to them? Yes of course it is. It is probably what I would have done too. There's no easy answer. There's no right answer either. Best thing to do is not to be a politician. Cricket, it's interesting. I think our provincial cricket is weak. We've got 100s of people leaving the country, playing cricket overseas. My boy never even played here. He's playing in New Zealand. He played in West Indies for six months, then England. Now he qualifies to play as a local player. He is 23. Bowls quick and it's a global market. The rand is not global. It's too low. If you study a degree and you can earn in pounds, you go and earn pounds. I saw the vision in my boy to play cricket overseas. Hopefully make it there and bring the money back and make a difference here. He did two years with me. He knows everything. He just needs to build a little more muscle and hopefully get an opportunity.

© Cricbuzz

TAGS