Former South African captain Faf du Plessis has known as David Warner a “bully” and admitted being “jealous” of his team-mate AB de Villiers, he revealed in his e-book Faf: Through Fire. One incident specifically stood out for Du Plessis which led to the comfortable spoken batter model Australia’s David Warner as a “bully”
During the primary of 4 Test matches in between Steve Smith’s Australia and Du Plessis’s South Africa in 2018, an on-field verbal abuse escalated within the gamers’ tunnel in Durban.
CCTV footage from the tunnel at Kingsmead confirmed Australia vice-captain David Warner and residential wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock concerned in a fiery change as gamers climbed the stairwell to their dressing rooms through the tea break.
The video exhibits 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 sphere as South Africa’s not-out batsman concurrently the Australians.
Du Plessis was cooling off within the bathe when he heard a commotion outdoors the dressing room door and he went on to test, clad in nothing however a towel. The scenario turned lighter when Du Plessis got here out in that state and additional issues had been averted, he wrote in his e-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 simply mentioned, “”He was a bully. I don’t have time for bullies.”
The collection would achieve infamy as a result of Australian ball-tampering scandal, culminating within the bans of three Aussie cricketers. This collection, by the way, can be the spotlight of Faf’s captaincy tenure.
The present RCB captain additionally went on to share his relationship with former RCB and Proteas stalwart AB de Villiers, somebody who was his childhood pal however now there was distance between them. In his e-book, Du PLessis mentioned that he usually felt jealous of ADB however “once he learned to accept this, he was able to find comfort in his own journey.”
Their relationship strained when ADB introduced his retirement which additional destabilised a group which had misplaced Greame Smith, Jacques Kallis and Morne Morkel. In 2019, simply earlier than the World Cup, De Villiers sought a re-entry to the squad which Du Plessis had rejected, straining the connection much more.
In the e-book, Du Plessis additionally shared his personal controversial moments on the pitch just like the ‘Zipgate’ the place he was discovered responsible of rubbing the ball on the zipper of his trousers in opposition to Pakistan in 2013 in addition to ‘Mintgate’ in 2016 in opposition to Australia the place he was seen making use of residue and saliva from a mint onto the ball.
“I’m not perfect. I’ve never claimed to be. I’ve never been the most talented player,” he mentioned.
He additionally introduced up the quarter-finals of the 2011 World Cup when he joined ADB within the center to chase a goal of 222 set by New Zealand. Off the second ball, he known as 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 mentioned. He was docked 50% of his match payment for shoving Kyle Mills and afterwards, acquired loss of life threats blaming him for the de Villiers run out.
