AB de Villiers pens emotional note as Hashim Amla announces retirement: I can literally write a book about you

Former South Africa cricketer AB de Villiers penned an emotional note for his teammate Hashim Amla, who announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.

Amla, considered as one of South Africa’s greatest batters, confirmed that he would not be returning to Surrey for the County Championship. The 39-year-old amassed 34,104 runs across all formats, including first-class. He scored 9,282 runs in 124 Tests between 2004-2019, becoming second only to Jacques Kallis for South Africa.

“Hashim Amla.. where do I start?! Not easy. Might take me a few days, weeks, months, years. I can literally write a book about you,” de Villiers tweeted.

“Humaam, thank you for always being there for me. You’ve always been a brother who made me feel safe in so many ways. Your journey wasn’t easy. “The guy with the weird technique”. “He’ll never last”. “He’ll never be consistent”.

“But then, in your own very unique way, you just walked out there, time and time again and just batted, like only you can. Calm, composed, consistent, gutsy, skilful and humble, always for the team, for your country. You inspired me in a way I can’t explain.

“So, today, I salute you my friend. You served the game to perfection! We can all learn from that. I did. I wish I could bat with you one more time,” de Villiers added.

Amla scored 8113 runs, including 27 hundreds, in 181 ODIs, and 1,277 runs in 44 T20Is. He called time on his international cricket following the conclusion of South Africa’s campaign at the World Cup in 2019.

“I have great memories of the Oval ground and to finally leave it as a player fills me with immense gratitude for what has been,” Amla said. “The Surrey ship runs so professionally that it would make any international player feel a sense of honour just to be involved with.”