Whenever South African captain AB de Villiers pulls off one of his eye-catching one-day innings, such as the world record 31-ball century against West Indies in January or that unbeaten 162 against the same opposition at the World Cup a month later, an internet meme does the rounds, outlining what an extraordinary sportsman he was during his formative years.
His captaincy of the South Africa junior rugby team, his junior tennis caps, his national badminton title, his hockey and footballing exploits, not to mention his junior national record over 100 metres and a scratch handicap at golf, are all listed, to leave little doubt as to the 31-year-old’s abilities. Here at the Malahide club, preparing to make his one-day debut against Ireland on Friday, could be England’s equivalent in 23-year-old Sam Billings, the explosive Kent wicketkeeper-batsman who has similarly chosen a career in cricket despite his own upbringing of varied sporting pursuits.
“I played more or less every sport growing up as I wasn’t a fan of sitting in the classroom – all I wanted to do was hit or kick a ball,” he said. “I played rugby for Haileybury school [as a half-back] up until I was 16, when I got knocked out against Dulwich. A big No8 spear-tackled me into our winger running at full pelt. The next thing I knew I was waking up in an infirmary.”
Prior to that incident, Billings had also played youth football for Corinthian FC – scoring a hat-trick against the Tottenham academy – tennis at county level, and continues to enjoy squash and the less well-known sport of racquets. The latter has influenced his batting, which saw him top last year’s averages in the Royal London Cup with 114 at a strike rate of 154.
“My cousin [Tom Billings] is world No4 at racquets. I played with him at school and never lost to him – but I won’t play him again,” he joked. “Anything that is hand-eye, tracking a ball at high speed, is going to help you. It’s a good way to keep your reactions ticking over, it freshens you up.”
It is with these skills, as a batsman, that Billings truly wants to follow De Villiers. “I can’t look further than him – he can hit every shot in the book and it’s something I’ve worked bloody hard on, trying to hit the ball 360 degrees. Ultimately he’s up there as the most complete batsman around – he can score 100 off 300 balls or 31 and there’s very few - if anyone – who can do that in world cricket.”
While De Villiers remains Billings’ modern-day batting muse, it was the 2005 Ashes winner Geraint Jones – as well as his opposite number in that series – that captured his imagination as young wicketkeeper-batsman looking up to the senior men in the Kent setup. “I was growing up watching Geraint and wanting to be him – I tell him that regularly. As a kid I wanted Puma wicketkeeping gloves because he and Adam Gilchrist had them,” he said. “It was surreal coming into that environment and becoming his competition for the gloves – but Geraint is a great bloke and helped me no end.” Was there no guilt at eventually bumping his idol out of the Kent first XI at the start of last season? “Not at all. He had the same issue with Paul Nixon before him – there is only one keeper and that’s the way things go.”
Like the Test captain Alastair Cook, Billings spends time away from cricket on the Kent farm where he grew up. The duo discussed this shared passion when playing for MCC against Yorkshire in Abu Dhabi at the start of the season, as well as trading batting tips. “I don’t get as involved as Cooky, he’s hands on and talked me through it,” he said. “His farm has lambs, pigs and turkeys while ours is dairy and beef with arable as well. He’s a bit more of a rounded farmer. We’re more specialised.
“It was been fantastic to rub shoulders with a guy who has played that much Test cricket – you can feed off it a little. But ultimately Alastair Cook plays one way and I play my mine.”
England supporters could be about to find out what that means.
