Dale Steyn is widely regarded as one of the best fast bowlers in recent times and the South Africa cricketer was an integral part of his national side before announcing Test retirement last season. Steyn, who made his international debut for South Africa in a Test match against England in 2004, has played on the global stage for a long time and during his career, he has shared the pitch with a variety of stalwarts. However, when asked to pick his all-time favourite cricketer, he had a clear answer. “AB de Villiers is probably my favourite cricketer, he is an incredible batter and a good friend,” said Steyn.
Steyn will be reunited with former South Africa teammate De Villiers as they will both be representing Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020. However, the upcoming season has been postponed to April 15 due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
Steyn also picked a teammate he would like to be quarantined with. Steyn named current South Africa skipper Quinton de Kock and said he wouldn’t mind being isolated with the wicket-keeper batsman.
“I would love to be in quarantine with someone like Quinny de Kock.” Steyn told ‘ESPNCricinfo’.
Steyn, who returned from Pakistan due to the virus outbreak, said it’s indescribable how the situation changed in a matter of hours. He was playing for Islamabad United in the Pakistan Super League which was suspended on the day of its semifinal clashes.
“It is actually such a pity that everything is being blocked off, because in a country like South Africa, where we have all of our problems from the past – culture, religion, ethnic backgrounds – the one thing that brings everybody together is sport,” .
“But now at the moment, you don’t have that. In South Africa, we kind of like looking for things that unite people in big, big groups. When you don’t have sport, it’s like, oh, what do we fall back onto? “And I think Nelson Mandela was the first person to really say that: sport unites people in a way that nothing else does. And if you take sport away, then I don’t know really what we have. We’re gonna have to work it all out.”
