“I thought Pretoria is not that hot” - AB de Villiers has a cheeky reaction after Broad discloses “sleeve up” slower ball secret
Former England pacer Stuart Broad has revealed that he used to pick his sleeve up to indicate to the keeper that he would be bowling a slower ball so that the latter could adjust his position accordingly. Reacting to Broad’s revelation, AB de Villiers stated that he wondered why the pacer did the same during a game in Pretoria even though the conditions were not that hot!
De Villiers is regarded as one of finest batters the game has produced across formats. But he struggled against Broad, especially in Test matches, a format in which the England legend dismissed him 10 times.
The Proteas great interviewed Broad in his latest YouTube show. During the interaction, De Villiers candidly admitted that he hated it when the ball did not come onto the bat.
“I absolutely hated that. From a very young age, when people actually took a bit of pace off and played around with the ball, I never enjoyed that. I wanted that pace on the bat,” the South African stated.
To this, Broad responded that De Villiers could have picked up the slower balls had he paid closer attention to the pacer’s mannerisms in his follow through.
“I can tell you something about that ball. No one knows it - only Jonny Bairstow or whoever is the keeper. When I am going to bowl that ball, at the end of my mark, I’d pick my sleeve up. That’s signal to the keeper to come up to try and catch the nick. So I would look around pull my sleeve up and Jonny Bairstow creeps in,” Broad averred.
De Villiers responded in a tongue-in-cheek manner and commented:
“I was wondering about that. I thought Pretoria is not that hot, why are you…”
While Broad finished his Test career with 604 wicket in 167 matches, De Villiers scored 8765 runs in 114 games.
“The last 14 months were the most enjoyable of my career” - Broad hails Bazball
England’s ‘Bazball’ ploy may have had its fair share of critics, but Broad backed the team’s ultra-aggressive approach. He opined that they are in the entertainment business and want to crowds to enjoy seeing them play.
Sharing his thoughts on ‘Bazball’, Broad commented:
“[There is] no pressure of result. The complete relinquishing of fear of failure because the ultimate goal of the team is to entertain the crowd and have fun. Ultimately, we are in the entertainment business. It’s been an incredible turnaround with arguably the same players we have before. [Ben] Stokes is so authentic in the way he plays the game to that style. It’s very great for me to say that the last 14 months were the most enjoyable of my career.”
While England came under fire for their tactics after they lost the first two Ashes 2023 Tests, they fought back to level the series 2-2.