Before AB de Villiers cried, the skies wept.

•  
•  
• O dear Leonard Cohen
• Will you lend your voice and words
• To the loss we're feeling
• Because all we can do now
• Is cry
•  
• Cry, cry, cry
• All we can do is cry
• Cry like we was babies
• Cry like we was lost
• Cry like we don't know when we're going home, AB
• Cry like we don't know when we're going home, baby
• Cry like we just don't know
• Oh, what a game this is
• The very game that makes me live
• Is the very game that makes me die
• The very game that makes me high
• The very game that makes me die
• Oh, what a game this is
• The crying game
•  
• I cried like a Pup
• I cried like a captain
• I cried with AB de Villiers
• I cried with Michael Clarke
• I cried with my heart ripped bare
• I cried for a player I scarcely knew
• His childhood photographs on my bedside table
• And I saw him growing up
• And I saw him going up
• I saw him fall
• I saw us all fall
• I saw that kid from the country
• His farmer ways
• I saw him with Warner
• I saw him on the scoreboard
• Forever not out
• Forever, 63* not out
•  
• I saw Morne long legs run down at the Kotla
• I saw Morne scissor balls back down at third man
• How he made the ball rise on such a passive pitch
• How he made the ball rise on just any pitch
• "How the moon hits your eye
• And the zing bails fly
• That's a Morne"
•  
• I saw Morne as a boy going to school
• The gentle gawky kid that wouldn't hurt a fly
• The gentle gawky kid that wouldn't tell a lie
• Such a good kid, such a straight good kid
• And that kid sits on the banks of Eden Park
• In a pool of tears, in a pool of blood, sweat and years
• Morne Morkel, just sits there and weeps
• All six foot four inches of him just sits there and weeps
• That's a Morne
• "When the moon hits your eye
• Like a big pizza pie, that's amore"
• Oh, what a game this is...
•  
• The very game that makes me live
• Is the very game that makes me die
• The very game that makes me high
• The very game that makes me die
• Oh, what a game this is
• The crying game
•  
• AB was everywhere, every fucking where
• From mid off to mid wicket
• From a midsummer night's dream to a midlife crisis
• AB batted in the 40th, AB bowled in the 40th
• AB aged nine years, he was on to his 40th
•  
• AB says
• I don't know what to do, I am completely at a loss
• AB says
• I don't know, I don't even know when we are going home
• AB says
• I tried my best to catch it, I didn't
• AB says
• As a captain, I'll be there for the guys
• AB says
• But life moves on and the sun will come up tomorrow
• AB says
• AB sobs
•  
• I write to my South African friends
• I ask them the same question
• How are you?
• Antoinette Muller says
• "Oh I'm fine. They did their best."
• Sean Wilson says
• "I'm okay. It's just sport."
• Sean Simpson says
• "I am shattered. Drinking nice wine though."
• Ben Karpinski says
• "Not well mate. Really not well
• But hoping your boys can beat Australia on Thursday. That will help things"
•  
• The very game that makes me live
• Is the very game that makes me die
• The very game that makes me high
• The very game that makes me die
• Oh, what a game this is
• The crying game
•  
• Before AB cried, the skies wept.

Credits, notes, asides:

"That's Amore" - by Dean Martin (lyrics by Brooks, Jack / Warren, Harry).

"That's a Morne" - by Sean Wilson (@SimplySean on twitter).

It's only after writing this that I discovered that Morne Morkel and I share a birthday. We did not go to the same school, however.

For a lark, picture Leonard Cohen singing "Now so long, Morne, it's time that we began to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again".

First published in daily O