'Good oke' with the superstar sheen

The Kruger National Park. Table Mountains. The Blyde River Canon. The Springboks. Hugh Masekela. Zola Budd. To become a national treasure in South Africa you have to be big, bold, beautiful, brave, believable, bashful and breathtaking. And if you are all of those things wrapped into one? Then you're AB de Villiers.

South Africa's favourite son is a stirring combination of all those qualities and one other: bloody nice. As the locals would say, 'a good oke,'; the kind you would invite to your braai, only for him to take over the flames, play with your kids, flirt with your wife and hand you a beer. That's the way a proper South African does it and de Villiers, superstar status aside, is no different.

He grew up like any small town South African kid on a wholesome diet of sunshine and sports. Mornings were spent at school during the week and church on the weekends. Afternoons were meant for playing cricket with his two older brothers, Jan and Wessels, and family friend Martin van Jaarsveld.

AB was the youngest and the littlest of the quartet, and had to learn to muscle his way into matches early on. The big boys made him carry drinks for hours, and when he got the chance to bat, they would run in hard and aim for his head. It was as competitive as it was casual and it ingrained the culture of sport in de Villiers, which his parents encouraged. They watched as their youngest tried his hands and feet at everything.

De Villiers dabbled in tennis and badminton, rugby and swimming and he was good at all of them. More than good, actually. At 13, he was offered a place at the Nick Bollettieri Academy in Florida to hone his tennis skills, but did not want to leave home. Cricket breathed a sigh of relief. As a teenager, he was offered to play for Blue Bulls rugby team, but he turned it down again. Cricket breathed a sigh of relief, and had him by then.

De Villiers' first realised his own desire to dominate when he was playing for the South African Colts team aged 16. He is quoted as wanting to be "the best" in his age group, on his fan site, and that became a mantra even as he redefined what the best was. That is actually why South Africans love de Villiers. He continually moves the bar and provides new reasons for fans to feel proud.

South Africans do not have the same insecurities that are evident in much of the sub-continent, where cricket is seen as the area in which they can lead. But they have other uncertainties. Multiple tournament failings have burdened generations of South African cricketers with baggage about their ability to perform under pressure, but de Villiers has lightened the load.

He is the record holder for the fastest fifty, fastest hundred and fastest 150 in ODIs. Thanks to him, South Africa has soared above totals of 400 on four occasions this year alone. He has scored a century on each of those occasions. South Africa may not have a World Cup to their name, but they have the best batsman in the format in their team.

In fact, they (and many others) will say they have the best batsman in any format in their team and the rankings confirm it. De Villiers currently sits at No.1 in both the Test and ODI rankings but the official confirmation is secondary to the stamp of approval he has received from his peers. Everyone from Glenn McGrath to Misbah-ul-Haq has used those words, "the best," to describe him but perhaps the highest praise has come from within his own camp.

"There are only two matches I dread in a year and that's the two IPL games I play against AB in the IPL," Dale Steyn said last December when he celebrated a decade as an international cricketer alongside South Africa's current ODI captain. De Villiers has sent Steyn back over his head in stinging style in the past, in the same arena that hosts his 100th Test.

It worked out nicely that the milestone will be achieved in Bangalore, de Villiers' adopted home. Across India, chants of "A-B-D," have resonated throughout this series after the awkward second of silence, when the home crowd tries to resolve their conflict of whether to cheer for de Villiers or their countrymen. In the end, they give in to their cricketing consciences, which makes his own people appreciate de Villiers even more.

For years, South Africans have had to hear about the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Ricky Ponting being among the greats without having one of their own feature in that list. Jacques Kallis' name was always mentioned in passing, but he lacked the charisma to really claim a place, unfair as that was. De Villiers is entirely the opposite.

He wears his heart on his sleeve and his emotions on his face. Just think back to the tears he made no attempt to hide after the 2015 World Cup semifinal loss to New Zealand in Auckland or to the many statements he has made before and after endorsing his own team as the best in the world. De Villiers' complete confidence in the people he plays with could be seen as glib, but it is issued so sincerely and acted upon with so genuinely that it isn't. He tells it like he thinks it is and that applies to everything about him that is in the public eye.

He does not hide who he is. A few years ago, de Villiers released some music he had recorded with a friend. The single was titled "Maak jou drome waar," (Make your dreams come true) and the accompanying music video was of boy-band quality. It was generally reviewed as being cheesier than a Domino's pizza and most people saw it as a chance to have a giggle at de Villiers' expense. But even as they did it, they admired his chutzpah.

These days, de Villiers is a husband and father who seems to keep his guitar for private use. His spare-time is spent doing what a lot of sports people do: playing golf, exploring the great outdoors and giving back. Among de Villiers' many projects are his charitable ones. He was an ambassador for the 'Make a Difference' charity and he currently runs a series of free coaching videos in an attempt to share his gifts.

It's little wonder then, that he is the most followed South African on Twitter, with 2.68 million cyber-stalkers. That's more than Trevor Noah (2.63 million), the comedian who who took over the Daily Show in the United States last month. Being a national treasure is about a lot more than funny business.