Barely 15 hours after South Africa's Test series-clinching victory over India in Centurion, the Long Room at the Wanderers is abuzz with activity. It's the launch ceremony of the traditional 'Pink ODI' in Johannesburg. Among celebrities that include Miss South Africa 2017 Adevan Heerden, are Protea stars Kagiso Rabada, David Miller and AB de Villiers. The event involves a small walk down a pink "ramp" to sugary music in the background. By the end of the excruciatingly uncomfortable two-minute exercise, all three cricketers are most relieved to be talking - cricket and breast cancer awareness. Then the topic of fashion comes up and Faf du Plessis's name gets thrown around more than a couple of times. The unofficially voted 'most stylish player' during last year's pink day festivities makes a mark without even being present.

It's not totally unexpected that du Plessis's name comes up. He is after all the all-powerful captain of South Africa across formats. But it's a name that invariably crops up in close conjunction with that of de Villiers. It has been that way since school. Since 1998.

***

In the week in which one of their greatest alumni has led a dismantling of the No.1 Test team, it is business as usual at the Afrikaans Hoer Seunskool, more popularly Affies. Located at Sunnyside, Pretoria, 20 kilometres from the SuperSport Park in Centurion, regular school activities are just about building pace after the Christmas break. Deon Botes, an Economics professor and now Director of Sport, waits for the end of the 3PM academic hours when he'll go on rounds supervising the practice sessions of the school's sports teams.

"They were naughty buggers, those two," he remarks after a brief trip down memory lane.

Botes and 'those two' started together at Affies in 1998. De Villiers and du Plessis joined the eighth grade and played Under-14 cricket as a part of their friendly integration into the school environment. Botes worked one level above, with the Under-15 boys. In a year's time, Botes graduated to take charge of the first team of school and in one of his earliest moves, decided to promote the younger players into the school's first XI side, then led by future Protea batsman Jacques Rudolph.

"Faf actually played a couple of games for the U15 side as a 14-year-old," Botes remembers. "At that stage, he was considered the better player between the two. I went with the Under-15s to Durban for a tournament once. I watched AB play there. He didn't score runs, but I could see he was a talented boy. I asked his coach: 'We should play golf. Bring AB with you, I want to watch him on a golf course.' After the golf, I told him, I want him to play first-team cricket. We started him as a 'keeper and batted him at No. 7 because he didn't bat well. Faf played first team before AB did. He'd made the first team as a leg spinner but because we didn't want a youngster playing at 9 or 10, so we batted him at No. 3."

He chuckles when informed of his No.3's conversation-grabbing feat at the pink-day launch.

"You wouldn't say it when you looked at him at Grade 8 and 9. In the classrooms, he was a bit sloppy. He would always come and take off his shoes in the class. He was untidy.

"Look at him now, he knows all the brand names. He always tries to look slick. He's got the whole tattoos thing. I think looks are very important to him. I saw him at a Cricket South Africa function. He was wearing the Proteas jacket and I said to him. 'Hey that's a nice blazer, Faf' and he said: 'Yes, I designed it. The old one wasn't good enough'."

That du Plessis was earmarked for greater things than de Villiers would seem a big surprise looking at the two players now. But even back then Botes saw a leader in a boy who couldn't keep his shoes on his feet.

The 2002 game between Johannesburg's famous King Edward VII School [KES] and Afrikaanse Hoer Seunskool was the major milestone in shaping both the boys' careers. Specifically, for du Plessis, it was the game that put him at a different plane, at least in the eyes of his coach.

It is a game still celebrated as "the biggest school game in South Africa". It was Johannesburg's finest against Pretoria's best. As many as 10 cricketers from that match went on to play provincial cricket with six graduating to international cricket. The Affies had du Plessis, de Villiers, Heino Kuhn and future New Zealand quick Neil Wagner, while KES had in their ranks Dane Vilas and Vaughn van Jaarsveld.

De Villiers had just returned from a 12-week absence due to a shoulder injury sustained while playing Rugby and had to give up 'keeping responsibilities. As it turned out, both the Affies stars failed with the bat, but a century from Kuhn gave the school a respectable total of 203. By 25 overs in the chase, KES chomped down 101 runs off the target for the loss of just one wicket with van Jaarsveld and Blake Snijman scoring fifties. Then the Affies hit back in the next 25 overs, their athleticism on the field contributing to five run-outs. Eventually, the chase came down to the final-wicket in the final over, when a gross error in judgement led de Villiers to drop a crucial catch (he ran backward from mid-wicket while the fielder at long-on had an easier chance). A single off the last ball condemned the Pretoria school to a one-wicket defeat.

"I was angry," recalls Botes. "The first guy to shake my hand was Faf. He shook my hand and said: 'Sir, this is the best 25 overs we've ever given to the school, so don't say any bad things in the change room now because I'll never forgive you for this.'

"I said okay and went to a bench and sulked over there... didn't even go to the change room," Botes remembers. "Faf was great with that. He realised they had played great cricket for the last 25 overs but they didn't win it. And that's cricket at the end of the day. That day, I got a lot of respect for Faf as a captain. It came out of that but I mean Faf as a leader is very good for the Proteas. If you think about it, it has done very well for the team. He is very good working with people behind the scenes, he'll call in a youngster, settle him down. He is very good working with people. You always get the impression that Hashim Amla and other seniors are happier when Faf is captain."

De Villiers, who walked off the field muttering: "It was my fault, I should have taken that catch," slammed a school-best 196 in the very next game against another of Affies traditional rivals - the Pretoria Boys High School.

***

Before earning the sobriquet 'Mr. 360' , de Villiers batted normally. He didn't feel the need to display a selection of his patented bat tricks - although tricks is scarcely the right word, since they tended to influence the course of a match rather than merely decorate its surface. But it wasn't for a lack of ability. He wasn't allowed to do anything other than play "proper cricket." He would score quickly in any case, often getting out in the 90s in the first 15 overs of a 50-over game.

"Faf was more the guy that would walk in, absorb pressure, pace the innings. If it was boxing, then AB would knock you out while Faf would hang around and win on a technical," Botes says. The balance worked out very beautifully for the Affies given they had two contrasting styles at 3 & 4.

"To be honest, the IPL and the T20s changed the whole game," Botes says. "With AB's capabilities, he anticipates quite well. He has enough time to adapt even if he doesn't anticipate. If he goes for the paddle outside off against the quicks, at the back of his head he has the option to take it the other way. He picks it up quickly. Most people can't believe the kind of shots he is playing, the way he has changed the game."

But while de Villiers's feat turned heads on the international circuit, it brought about a change in the teaching curriculum in his old school.

"Now because one of our former guys does it, we practice scoops and paddles and those kind of things with the kids these days. They do ask at times. If a guy tries it and there's something wrong - he gets his head in the wrong position. We try to get his head in the right position. Now we have to coach these shots."

With the bat, de Villiers was always 'the natural' while du Plessis strived to succeed despite his shortcomings. For two years, Botes tried to change his captain's bat grip - he had a big gap on the bat handle between his two hands. But du Plessis would come back after the winter holidays and say: "Sir every time I want to get off strike, I want to hit to mid-wicket and run and your grip doesn't help" Botes recalls. "We agreed to let him keep his heavy bottom-hand influence, so if you even watch him now, you see that he won't hit the ball cleanly on the off-side. If you see the slow-mos properly, you'll see the bat turning a lot because of that grip. But it's just a thing about finding comfort"

The getting off strike with a single to mid-wicket did eventually come in handy for du Plessis in a crucial clash against Durban High School, a clash that saw the Affies boys go up against a future teammate Hashim Amla. But it was Imran Khan, the off-break bowler picked for the Cape Town Test of 2009 against Australia, who gave Botes's boys all the trouble. "That was an interesting game in the sense that it was a lively wicket and we bowled them out for 140, but Amla made 73. And he hit the ball cleanly as well that day on a difficult wicket. So, you could see then that this guy can play.

"And when we batted, we lost our first two wickets early, so Faf batted three and AB four. Imran Khan really bowled well and I know Faf at that stage struggled a bit against him. So obviously Faf is an important guy to bat through when the wicket is difficult and when we walked out for drinks, AB came to me and said, 'sir just tell Faf to give the strike against Imran and I will sort him out.' And I said to Faf, 'it seems like you are struggling against the off-spinner' and he said 'yes sir, I don't know what to do.' I said, 'alright, just get a single, AB will sort him out.'

"And when AB got the strike, he went down the track and hit him (Khan) over extra cover -- it was turning big. And then he slog-swept him over cow (corner). And then Imran Khan was done! But that's the difference - AB always had that ability to take the game away from people."

They were completely different batsmen and very different personalities on the field, but shared a very similar love for practical jokes off it.

Affies, founded on January 28, 1920, was the first purely Afrikaans-medium school in South Africa, pre-dating even the recognition of Afrikaans as an official language by five years. Traditionally, Afrikaans boys are understood to be tougher and have naturally inclination towards Rugby. The increase in Afrikaans-speaking cricketers in South Africa is a more recent phenomenon. Usually, the Afrikaans' kids wouldn't make the provincial sides. It was predominantly English-speaking kids that played there. In the old days, the Afrikaans Schools had to pick one team out of all their schools to play Pretoria Boys High school - an English medium institution with a powerful cricket background. And now contests between the two are more evenly matched.

Through Monday to Friday, the Affies boys attend classes till about 3 PM in the afternoon, before skipping to the adjoining Boarding Establishment (BE) for refreshments and then turn out for practice for one of the many sports teams. Rugby is still the most popular sport with as many as 30 different teams taking the field. But cricket comes a close second with as many as 18 age-group teams as on January 2018.

The school's sports department remains very particular on the importance of not letting students specialise one sport too early. There are many transferable skills to be had. "We actually believe that try and do everything you can. We are one of the schools that say don't specialise early. There's a development thing in the body. Your rugby players are lot more agile on the cricket field. They turn out as great fielders," Botes says.

Du Plessis, who was appointed captain of the first team in Grade 11, also played third team rugby for the school and stood a good chance to make it to the second team. Given that Affies is one of the traditionally strong Rugby schools in the country, that was quite an achievement. De Villiers obviously made it to the first team in Rugby along with another future Proteas teammate - Heino Kuhn. "If a guy just focusses on cricket, he is not agile then we have to coach him on fielding. He is what we call 'plump' or just normal."

But de Villiers and du Plessis weren't normal. They were 'woeligs' - Afrikaans for restless busy-bodies. They were famed for their notoriety. "Faf came to me one day and said he wouldn't be able to come to practice because his kit was locked in his hostel room and he'd lost his key," recollects Botes. "I told him: 'You know what Faf, I don't care what you do but you have to come to practice.' Discipline is very important, we are very strict. You cannot be captain of the side and miss a practice session. It's your bad management, you have to take control of your life.

"Then he arrived at practice 15 minutes later with his kit. So I asked him 'what did you do' He said: 'I broke the window, climbed through it and got my kit' and I told: "No, you cannot do that. I meant, try asking for a spare key. He was that kind of guy."

Du Plessis came close to being expelled from the BE for vandalism resulting from throwing shoes at the guard that turned the lights off in the night at the hostel. The captain was pardoned on Botes's word. The coach, however, couldn't protect the other prankster de Villiers and his friends from being expelled for two months following complaints from parents that the boy was using the college radio to flirt with girls. Given that de Villiers's family came from Bela-Bela, an hour's drive away from Pretoria, an alternate accommodation had to be found to have the star batsman turnout for practice every day.

On another occasion, du Plessis and another close friend, who happens to be his agent now, rolled a tyre down a hill and dented the door of a caravan, cracking it. "We go to festivals and play at Maritzburg college. During civil wars it was a hospital. So anything inside that building is almost sacred in the sense that you cannot replace it. The windows are of certain kind of glass. They always tell us to make sure no one plays ball games. I run back to the room - they're practising slip catching with a cricket ball and the guys have to catch in front of these windows. Then they get bored, they have a rhythm thing going, so they have this kind of dance to make it even more difficult to protect these windows. They couldn't sit still and obviously Faf was mostly leader in these things. I think the captaincy came out of that."

"They were naughty but it was never the getting drunk kind," Botes says. "There's a sense of brotherhood that these boys develop by playing in teams and being in pranks. No Affie boy will ever bust another one out after a prank" Botes says with a laugh. "That is why they continue to remain very good mates. When the Test captaincy went from AB to Faf (in 2016), I asked both of them: 'How is your friendship?' Both said: 'Why you asking such a stupid question. Of course, we are friends. They are both happy for each other.'

"I suppose there was rivalry between the two but it was more: 'if you can do it, I can do it.' They used to practice together as well. In the hostel, you obviously get a lot of spare time as well. So they would throw to each other in the nets. They challenged each other to get better and better."

Once outside of school, the paths for the two Affies pranksters diverged significantly. While the natural de Villiers was fast-tracked into the Skole team and soon into the Proteas team in 2004, du Plessis toiled in relative obscurity, in the domestic circuit and even looked abroad for other opportunities when a breakthrough wasn't forthcoming. He signed a Kolpak deal in 2007 to play with Lancashire to experience the rigours of the County system. He did, however, return every year to play domestic cricket. Eventually, when his Kolpak deal expired, he got a chance to play for South Africa in January 2011 - nearly seven years after his good friend had made the breakthrough. But once he was there, he switched to the fast lane.

"The one thing about the two is, when they got picked for the higher level, AB immediately performed. Faf had to go through a lot of opportunities before he actually started performing at a level," Botes recalls. "So, when Faf broke through in our provincial system, there was a time we went to a function, there was Q&A and he was the guy they were talking to and I said to him, 'Faf, you know what, you better start making some runs because they are going to drop you at some stage. Then your cricketing career is gone.' I meant if he got chopped off the provincial system after being part of it for a long time, it's hard to come back. You give another guy an opportunity and he takes it, you are gone.

"And he said to me, 'you know what, the 50-over tournament (The MTN40) is coming up. I will make runs there.' He scored three hundreds there, he was the top run-scorer (567 runs at 81.00 from 10 games), and then suddenly they picked him for South Africa in an ODI against India and then for the 2011 World Cup. And when he got picked for Tests in Australia later that year, his first Test match had a match-saving effort in Adelaide. So when he actually got to international cricket, his first knock was a good one whereas AB did well all the way through but his first couple of games he struggled a bit."

Once re-united with his old pal, the Affies boys rekindled their friendship once more. This time they were also united by a common World Cup goal. So much had changed since their last school game together yet they found out that there were some others that absolutely hadn't - like running each other out. When AB de Villiers was run-out in the Champions Trophy defeat to India, Botes received a call from the headmaster of Affies. "I wanted to phone you because I was angry with you, you always told me they were part of lot of run-outs in school. They are still doing it."

"But headmaster they are not our responsibility any more," Botes said.