Former Proteas cricket captain Faf du Plessis has revealed that he lost respect for former South African batting great Daryll Cullinan following an incident in a change-room when he was just starting out in the senior ranks.
The revelation comes ahead of the release of Du Plessis’ autobiography Faf: Through Fire.
Du Plessis, who gave up the Test captaincy at the beginning of 2020 and also quit ODI cricket, has been overlooked by the Proteas in the T20 format, possibly due to a breakdown in the relationship between the player and coach Mark Boucher.
This, too, is revealed in the forthcoming book by the 38-year-old Du Plessis, who captained the Proteas in all three formats.
In an extract from the book doing the rounds on social media, Du Plessis reveals how one day in the change-room he sat down next to Cullinan to absorb as much information from the senior player as he could, only for the veteran batter to tell him: “What the f**k are you doing next to me? Why the f**k are you sitting here?”
He adds Cullinan continued: “Youngster, take your bag and f**k off! Jacques Rudolph is a Test player, and he’s not even sitting next to me. He sits on a chair, but you sit on a f**king sofa.
Du Plessis says he froze, as Cullinan continued. ”Take your bag and sit in the bath. You don’t deserve to sit here.”
Du Plessis says that in a matter of moments one of his childhood idols went from hero to zero.
