Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool, the school of the famous South Africa duo AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis, cricket coach Deon Botes has lifted the lid on the troublesome nature of the prolific duo. The pair currently are the leaders of the South African cricket team, but were very mischievous as children.

Botes recalled a story about Faf du Plessis not wanting to train, using lost keys as an excuse to skip training. Nevertheless, Botes still asked him to come to training at any cost, to which the current Test captain did something hilarious.  

“One fine day, Faf comes up to me and says that he cannot come for training because his kit bag was in his room and he couldn’t find the key,” he said to News18s CricketNext.

“Being the naughty boy that he was, I was sure he didn’t feel like training. So I told him that he had to come for training and I didn’t care how. So, as expected, I see Faf right there with the rest of the boys. After training, I walk up to him and ask him how he got the keys to which he said he didn’t.

“So, I enquired about the kit bag and he said he broke in through the window. I was like but Faf you cannot do that and he is like, ‘But sir, you only said I had to be at the ground at any cost.’ Now what can you say to this? It shows that he was just as serious about the game as he was a rule-breaker.”

He then recounted a tale of AB de Villiers. The South African known as Mr. 360 was once expelled from school for trying to speak to a girl in a girl’s school down the street.

“A new trend had started where the kids would speak to one another on radio. So now, AB was trying to talk to one of the students in the girl’s school down the road and as luck would have it, one of the parents was walking down from that place at the same time and the matter was immediately brought up and AB had to be expelled for this,” he revealed.

Faf du Plessis is a gentleman and makes sure he dresses like one. However, once upon a time, he hated wearing shoes.

“He would be sitting in the classroom without shoes. Why? He felt hot wearing shoes. Now what could be a possible comeback to that.”

Finally, he concluded by revealing that Faf du Plessis started off as a leg-spinner before prioritizing his batting. Meanwhile, de Villiers used to be a wicketkeeper that batted at number 8. Botes confessed his love for both, but preferred Faf as a batter over ABD.

“When Faf came into the school team, he was a leg-spinner who also batted. We really thought we would see him bowl more often, but as he rose up the ranks, batting became a priority. As for AB, he was a wicket-keeper who batted at number 8 to start with. It was much later that he started batting up the order.