Former South African captain Faf du Plessis has called David Warner a “bully” and admitted being “jealous” of his team-mate AB de Villiers, he revealed in his book Faf: Through Fire. One incident in particular stood out for Du Plessis which led to the soft spoken batter brand Australia’s David Warner as a “bully”
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During the first of four Test matches in between Steve Smith’s Australia and Du Plessis’s South Africa in 2018, an on-field verbal abuse escalated in the players’ tunnel in Durban.
CCTV footage from the tunnel at Kingsmead showed Australia vice-captain David Warner and home wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock involved in a fiery exchange as players climbed the stairwell to their dressing rooms during the tea break.
The video shows Warner being restrained by Australia batsman Usman Khawaja and spin bowler Nathan Lyon as he directs a verbal barrage at De Kock, who left the field as South Africa’s not-out batsman at the same time as the Australians.
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Du Plessis was cooling off in the shower when he heard a commotion outside the dressing room door and he went on to check, clad in nothing but a towel. The situation became lighter when Du Plessis came out in that state and further problems were averted, he wrote in his book.
“Australia wanted to bully us,” he says. “We had to stand up for ourselves. They abused us that whole game but the way we fought back turned the series around.”
On Warner, he just said, “”He was a bully. I don’t have time for bullies.”
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The series would gain infamy due to the Australian ball-tampering scandal, culminating in the bans of three Aussie cricketers. This series, incidentally, would be the highlight of Faf’s captaincy tenure.
The current RCB captain also went on to share his relationship with former RCB and Proteas stalwart AB de Villiers, someone who was his childhood friend but now there was distance between them. In his book, Du PLessis said that he often felt jealous of ADB but “once he learned to accept this, he was able to find comfort in his own journey.”
Their relationship strained when ADB announced his retirement which further destabilised a team which had lost Greame Smith, Jacques Kallis and Morne Morkel. In 2019, just before the World Cup, De Villiers sought a re-entry to the squad which Du Plessis had rejected, straining the relationship even more.
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In the book, Du Plessis also shared his own controversial moments on the pitch like the ‘Zipgate’ where he was found guilty of rubbing the ball on the zipper of his trousers against Pakistan in 2013 as well as ‘Mintgate’ in 2016 against Australia where he was seen applying residue and saliva from a mint onto the ball.
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“I’m not perfect. I’ve never claimed to be. I’ve never been the most talented player,” he said.
He also brought up the quarter-finals of the 2011 World Cup when he joined ADB in the middle to chase a target of 222 set by New Zealand. Off the second ball, he called for a single which ended up costing De Villiers his wicket and South Africa the match.
“The New Zealand players were all over me. They started calling me a choker. I held a lot of resentment towards them for a long time,” he said. He was docked 50% of his match fee for shoving Kyle Mills and afterwards, received death threats blaming him for the de Villiers run out.
