Talk:AB de Villiers

A B deviliers batting strike mention please. It is important too.especially for ODI. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 103.87.55.92 (talk) 07:44, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

Education section - junior achievements

Are his achievements at the SA national junior level listed under section Education all verified. Where are the citations for them. On the other hand some other sources seem to suggest that the achievements were at school level, like this one:

https://in.news.yahoo.com/ab-villiers-insight-why-true-075259598.html

Some excerpts from this article:

"Other than that, he created swimming records in school and pursued badminton and played at the U-19 level also"

" it took him very less time and some good luck to feature in the top rugby team of his school, the 1st XV of the Affies. He performed extraordinarily well and was selected for the Blue Balls U-18 side."

"He once had a flair for hockey, and made it to the U-16 side of the school that did really well during the time he was a member"

Had he been the national U-19 champion in badminton or the 100m record holder in SA junior level as claimed, it should have been in online news articles, right? I didn't find anything on scouring the internet other than articles based on the content from this section.

I have a feeling that the achievements are exaggerated. He sure seems like an outstanding all-round sportsperson. But is it true that he made so many achievements at the junior national level?

Aneeshv79 (talk) 06:17, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

I investigated some of these claims when the list went viral a few months ago. There is a source for the claim that he is a scratch golfer - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/other_international/south_africa/6246287.stm. Couldn't find any online sources to either confirm or refute the other claims, so I emailed some of the relevant governing bodies to enquire. Leon Freimond of Tennis South Africa told me that de Villiers did not play in the Junior Davis Cup, and Herman Nagel of Badminton South Africa said that he never won any national badminton tournament, so both of those can be deleted.Chile Nose Jam (talk) 22:57, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

quota system?

where is the evidence AB suffered as a result of the quota system?

"Selection based on talent and merit often have to take a backseat to skin colour, and AB has "suffered" this on a few occasions." That sounds like WP:POV to me... QazPlm 12:56, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

NPOV cleanup

This article is part of the NPOV backlog. Some loaded text/sentences is removed. Since the NPOV tag has been placed without any discussion here, and there seems to be no discussion suggesting disagreement, the tag is removed. If you disagree with this, please re-tag the article with {{NPOV}} and post to Talk. -- Steve Hart 19:22, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

The information about de Villiers suffering as a result of the "enforced quota system" still seems like opinion to me. There could be a multitude of reasons why de Villiers doesn't have a regular place in the South African cricket team. Does anyone have any verifiable proof of this claim? QazPlm 11:28, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

I would agree. In any case, I think he got into the side because Tsolekile (a black wicket-keeper) replaced Boucher thus 'freeing up' a space for AB and in any case, the quota system now appears to be a thing of the past in the national team at least. My recollection of the events above may be wrong, but if anything, the quota system helped him more than hindered him as I'm not sure he's ever been dropped since. Also, he is a regular member of the South African side, and has been for at least two years now so it's incorrect to state he doesn't have a regular place in the South African cricket team. JP (talk) 07:34, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

Stats

I have just refurbished the statistics. Please crosscheck, any suggestions? extra999 (talk) 04:36, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Requested Move: AB or A.B. or A. B.?

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: No consensus to move. Cúchullain ^t/c 13:46, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

---

---

AB de Villiers → ? – Hi all. One of our fellow editors has raised a question about the use (or non-use) of full stops and spaces in this article about a biography of a living person. Should the article follow WP:COMMONNAME? If so, what is AB's "most commonly used name"? Should AB's personal preference for his name be taken into consideration? --Shirt58 (talk) 09:08, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

I think:

1. Yes, WP:COMMONNAME applies. I don't see any guideline or policy, including the relevant section of the naming conventions that requires the "X. Y." format, as opposed to "XY". Although that would be the norm.
2. Cricinfo (reliable independent source), Cricket South Africa (official source) and the player himself all use "AB de Villiers".

So it should be "AB de Villiers" here. --Mkativerata (talk) 09:25, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

• IMHO, it should be Abraham de Villiers, with both AB and A. B. being used as redirects to it. Check J. K. Rowling. (✉→BWilkins←✎) 18:10, 2 November 2012 (UTC)
  • I'm not following the comparison with J. K. Rowling, which is at J. K. Rowling. Initialisations of article titles are very common: H. V. Evatt and H. H. Asquith spring to mind. Really the only question here is whether to inlcude fullstops and spaces after the initials. --Mkativerata (talk) 19:46, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

Should be A. B. de Villiers per English grammar, though I agree with BWilkins above re the full name and redirects. This "AB" thing is modern laziness per BBC (or B. B. C. as it should be). --Old Lanky (talk) 20:02, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

The problem is that "modern laziness" is not the test by which articles are named. A strict grammatical test on wikipedia is inappropriate, as different English languages will have different approaches. How are we to know that this is not correct in South Africa (per JP Duminy)? That is why wikipedia uses the test set out in WP:COMMONNAME; the outcome of that test here is clear. We should never depart from the weight of reliable sources. --Mkativerata (talk) 20:06, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

Oppose - Follow the sources per WP:COMMONNAME, thus AB is correct. See also the same topic at Talk:JP Duminy#Abbreviation in article title: JP, J.P., J-P, J. P., J.-P., and so on Roger (talk) 20:24, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

• Per Mkativerata's points, the article is currently at the right place in my opinion. In response to BWilkins, I would suggest that most cricket fans would be confused or at least bemused by an article entitled "Abraham de Villiers", it would be not dissimilar to having an article entitled John Tolkien. As to whether to have dots, dashes or otherwise, I would favour AB purely because he is known as "AB" beyond it simply being his initials. Harrias ^talk 22:56, 2 November 2012 (UTC)
• Noone ever refers to him as "Abraham de Villiers", it is always "AB de Villiers" or "AB" for short, just as it was always "WG Grace" or "WG". So WP:COMMONNAME applies. I don't feel strongly about whether there should be full stops after the initials or not, though. JH (talk page) 10:34, 3 November 2012 (UTC)
• Move to A. B. de Villiers - MOS as J. P. Morgan, C. S. Lewis, J. K. Rowling etc. In ictu oculi (talk) 20:33, 3 November 2012 (UTC)
  • Exactly which part of the manual of style are you pointing to? What the MOS actually says is: "The title of an article should be based on the Article titles policy". Our Article titles policy in turn says: "Article titles are based on what reliable English-language sources refer to the article's subject by." There's no hard and fast rule on initials. --Mkativerata (talk) 20:50, 3 November 2012 (UTC)

MOS:PN and offlinking from that Wikipedia:Naming conventions (people). All examples are A. B., as per normal English orthography and English punctuation. We don't do stylizations of "AB Surname" unless its a WP:STAGENAME. It may be that some wrestler BLPs have "AB Surname" of their birthname, do you know of any? In ictu oculi (talk) 04:43, 5 November 2012 (UTC)

Examples given in guidelines are not exhaustive. Nowhere is there a rule that says all initials must be in X. Y. format. Rightly so, because such a rule would contravene COMMONNAME. --Mkativerata (talk) 08:38, 5 November 2012 (UTC)

Ha, I can assure you that back in the steam era when children were taught punctuation along with whooping cough vaccinations there was such a rule. Even today in paper sources usually punctuation is simply a punctuation issue so it doesn't vary for punctuating W. G. Grace, H. H. Armstrong, J. A. Bailey one way and cricketers with cool shades another. I just checked my own publisher's MOS guide and we are told to A. B. (not that I'd need telling, I was taught that as a child). It'd be interesting to see if Economist MOS, Chicago MOS, AP MOS, NY Times MOS cover this ---- but surely there must be a dozen wp threads on this in a WP:MOS subpage somewhere... In ictu oculi (talk) 14:24, 5 November 2012 (UTC)

So you've shifted from saying it's covered by wikipedia's MOS to a vague suggestion that it would be covered by the MOS's of other publications. Yet if you search for de Villiers' name in reputable English publications like the BBC, there you have it: "AB de Villiers".[1] So clearly their actual MOS doesn't agree with your hypothetical ones. --Mkativerata (talk) 19:22, 5 November 2012 (UTC)

You're right, even though MOS:PN and Wikipedia:Naming conventions (people) examples are A. B., as per normal English orthography and English punctuation, it isn't clearly stated and there doesn't seem to be any MOS guideline to punctuate names correctly. So we can say that en.wp editors, with no guideline, are defacto following traditional school-taught punctuation as per Prentice Hall handbook for writers Page 395 Melinda G. Kramer, Glenn H. Leggett, Carl David Mead - 1995 "Use periods with initials of names and abbreviations ending with lower-case letters." or Rabinowitz, and Vogel The Manual of Scientific Style Page 210 2009 "Initials of names should be capitalized and followed by a period and a space. Mr. H. L. Mencken" ... but that it isn't written down anywhere.

As for BBC I wasn't aware that BBC had an MOS? (do they?) If they do it appears that they don't apply it, since BBC webpages are full of grammatical errors, inconsistencies, orthographic oddities. What we'd really need as with any issue is a reliable source per WP:IRS "reliable for the statement being made."

I mean a serious book which goes "P. W. Botha... AB de Villiers," or "W. G. Grace... AB de Villiers." Has "AB de Villiers" appeared in a reliable print source where his initials are punctuated differently from others listed by initials?? (Serious question) 00:50, 6 November 2012 (UTC)In ictu oculi (talk)

• Absolutely opposed to moving to "Abraham" – that goes clearly against WP:UCN. As to whether it should be "AB" or "A. B.", I'm not too fussed. Undoubtedly the majority of sources will use "AB" as that is the standard for cricket works (why that is I don't know), so the question really comes down to whether it's a style issue or a common name issue. Interesting to note the location of W. G. Grace. Jenks24 (talk) 10:35, 5 November 2012 (UTC)
• 'AB de Villiers' seems fine per WP:COMMONNAME.--Wolbo (talk) 00:29, 10 November 2012 (UTC)
• Oppose any move. The current naming reflects the most common usage of his name. It should be a question of which version of the name reliable sources use, rather than editors' personal preference (if we were to be pedantic B.B.C. has been misspelt several times above). Hack (talk) 02:56, 16 November 2012 (UTC)
• Suggestion. Perhaps the article might best be named "AB" de Villiers, i.e. with the AB in quotemarks to show that it's intentional rather than a stylistic oversight? Otherwise, I imagine "Abraham Benjamin de Villiers", "Abraham B. de Villiers", maybe "Abraham de Villiers" but most likely "A. B. de Villiers" are the stylistically consistent possibilities, with the "AB" nickname then included in the article's opening. 213.246.91.158 (talk) 17:48, 22 November 2012 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Exaggerated Achievements

I think his achievements listed in the Education section of the article might be highly exaggerated. It could've been due to a viral internet message that happened after the IPL Match 24, on May 4, 2014. This viral message could've originated as a result of his heroics in that match. When someone receives this message about his education, first thing they do is check Wikipedia to make sure its true and if Wikipedia also lists it without citing sources, then people will spread it. So, please remove the content or cite sources. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.208.186.123 (talk) 19:13, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

This page reads like a giant whatsapp forward, I'm sorry but can we please have semi-protect or something? Rabid Indian fans will use wikipedia to create a source for their idol's somewhat suspicious accomplishments. For example, why is his bilingual pop record worthy of mention in the "early life" section. 122.176.32.138 (talk) 06:45, 26 May 2016 (UTC)

• Removing the statements as per IP. I have also not found any sources attesting to the fact. Anyone re-adding the statements, please add sources first

Soni (talk) (Previously TheOriginalSoni) 16:15, 22 July 2014 (UTC)

Removed statements - "De Villiers was good at many other sports apart from cricket.He had been shortlisted for junior national hockey squad and junior national football squad.He was the Captain of South Africa Junior Rugby team. He has the fastest 100m time in SA junior athletics. He has a Golf handicap of scratch. He also received a national medal from late Nelson Mandela for a science project. "

Family roots

True or false: This guy is a grandson (or maybe great-grandson) of LC de Villiers? Who seems to have been a good cricketer in his own right because Pretoria´s central cricket ground is, or used to be, named after him? If so, his ancestor was a distinguished soccer player in Germany, winning the All German Championship with Freiburger FC in 1907 before returning to Pretoria. Nobody, however, seems to know what his first name was, other than just LC. Oder vielleicht doch? Best, SpVggLieth (talk) 15:52, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

Unorthodox cricketer

AB has ability to hit the ball anywhere in cricket field ,unorthodox batting, to perform any task like - brilliant fielding , wicket keeping , balling , excellent running between the wickets , to adapt the game in all the three formats . Due to these reasons he has achieved nicknames like Mr.360 , superman and is regarded as one of the best cricketer of all time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ravi singh singh singh (talk • contribs) 09:46, 25 August 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on AB de Villiers. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140326181647/http://www.cricket365.com/basket/14766/story/7414102/South-Africa-complete-long-awaited-series-win to http://www.cricket365.com/basket/14766/story/7414102/South-Africa-complete-long-awaited-series-win
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150823120058/http://stats.espncricinfo.com/icc-cricket-world-cup-2015/engine/records/batting/most_runs_career.html?id=6537%3Btype%3Dtournament to http://stats.espncricinfo.com/icc-cricket-world-cup-2015/engine/records/batting/most_runs_career.html?id=6537%3Btype%3Dtournament

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 21:48, 23 June 2017 (UTC)

Recent VANDALISM

There have been recent, repeated attempts of vandalism regarding the name and birthplace of this cricketer, mainly done by anonymous users. Looks as if the same person has used a different devices to add the same misleading information. Any remedy to this? CaptainGKPrime (talk) 14:58, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

"Widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketer to have played the game..."

Apparently he's "Widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketer to have played the game..." The only problem is that I can't find any substantive sources to back this up. I've removed this and similar claims several times - they've been replaced, probably by the same editor. I've reverted three times today, they've done so four times. Anyone else fancy taking a look at this and settle whatever dispute there is. Thanks. Blue Square Thing (talk) 16:09, 26 May 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 7 July 2019

Aalyani73838838 (talk) 10:22, 7 July 2019 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. EdJohnston (talk) 16:00, 7 July 2019 (UTC)

Pakistan Super League

AB de Villiers joined PSL in September 7, 2018. He signed for Lahore Qalandars. He played his First Match on 15th February, 2019 against Islamabad United. He scored 24 runs from 17 balls. His Best Innings in PSl is 52 runs from 29 Balls. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aalyani73838838 (talk • contribs)

why is the page protected

i can't edit many pages because they are protected i am a new user what should i do Amgmk (talk) 06:49, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

Hi @Amgmk: This page was semi-protected through the 23rd due to persistent vandalism. Once your account is 4 days old and you have made at least 10 edits, you'll be able to edit semi-protected pages. Until then, if you want to make a change to a semi-protected article, you can explain the change you would like to make on the article's talk page (in a clear "change X to Y" format) and place {{Edit semi-protected}} alongside your message to alert other editors that you have requested a change. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 06:56, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 18 August 2022

{, m,bnih — Preceding unsigned comment added by Manmilk (talk • contribs) 22:06, 18 August 2022 (UTC)