Faf: Through Fire

Product Information

With the ongoing Cricket World Cup and the craze of the sport, I started reading the autobiography of one of the cricketers whose presence on the ground was cherished by cricket lovers.

It took him years to connect with this side of himself, but when he did, it shaped his relationships with people and, ultimately, his captaincy of the Proteas. the tattooed, fashion-conscious, mentally tough, immensely popular and yet, at times, misunderstood Du Plessis. A great book from someone who has for a very long time been a shadow of bigger personalities on the playing field. he describes just one game of the T20 against England and doesn't mention the score or the other games in the series. This was a really good book, but a tough read as there is a lot of repetition and some of the details behind events can become a bit exhaustive.He describes his relationship with AB de Villiers and other players in detail as well, in a very raw and honest way.

Raised on a diet of Sachin Tendulkar’s straight drives, Aditya fell in love with the game after watching Sachin’s Desert Storm masterclass in 1998. Given that he was a part of dominant teams since his school days featuring future internationals such as AB de Villiers, Neil Wagner, Kruger van Wyk, Heino Kuhn, and Jacques Rudolph, where they lost two games in three years, it must have been challenging for Du Plessis to come to terms with the long transition that the Proteas faced under his leadership. Being a huge cricket fan (as well as a huge Faf fan), I was excited to read and was presently surprised with this book. Du Plessis chronicles his career in cricket through the lens of leadership, culture, and relationships.I felt the writing style could have been much crisper, tighter and a more linear pattern of storytelling would have been a better choice. The only negative side to the book is that it does, especially closer to the end become slightly self righteous but I guess that's what any good Biography is.

It’s quite possible that I was still part of Mark’s plans for the future, but he had an approach to leadership that didn’t include soft skills and relational interactions. Watching the India v/s South Africa New Year Test at the Newlands is among his favorite cricket memories.

He gives great insights into the goings on behind the scenes, tells of his experiences - good and bad - and takes the reader into the life of an elite athlete. Very few leaders understand the importance of both hard and soft skills and how getting both of them firing at the same time can be a game changer. The books is at times uncomfortable to plough through as it smacks of a bumbling self-absorbed child with a victim mentality. I likely would not recommend this book as the interest surrounding the back of house ongoings isn’t worth the self-promoting arrogance of the man-child himself. He is considered to be one of the best fielders in the game and among the best all-format batsmen of his era.