Expression of contempt for fast bowlers comes easily to him but there was a time when professing his love for a girl wasn't exactly a reticent AB de Villiers' ball-game.
A shy schoolboy that he was, De Villiers would often pen his romantic thoughts on pieces of paper that would only find 'refuge' in the safer confines of his rooftop.
In the city to promote luxury writing instrument brand Mont Blanc, De Villiers spoke about the good old school days when love letters were in vogue.
"I am a bit of a romantic -- so any girl that I fell for during school days, I would write a letter but the problem with that was I was always too scared to give it to her. I would then go back home with the letter, with a lot of love in there, and I would climb to the roof of our house and I would hide the letter there," De Villiers fondly recollected.
He has had heady scores on the cricket field but his score of love letters during school days isn't that bad either.
"So they ended up being around 27-30 letters there at the end of my school career. All of them I was too scared to give it to the girls," he added.
Now married to Danielle, the romantic at heart husband husband at times does express his thoughts through love letters.
"Now that I am a bit older, and have finally got married, I have decided to use all that (experience) to write letters to my wife. Just the other day, when she left for South Africa, I slipped in a little handwritten note into her passport which I knew she would read, once reaching the airport.
"I got a text message from her a day or two later when she arrived at home saying how much that meant to her," the die-hard romantic signed off.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
