Former Proteas batsman Daryll Cullinan has denied swearing at a young Faf du Plessis in the Titans change room.
In his autobiography Faf: Through Fire, Du Plessis recalls the day Cullinan told him to “take your bag and f**k off!”
Shortly after I finished school, the then provincial teams merged to form franchises. Northern Titans and Easterns merged and Dave Nosworthy was appointed as coach and Daryll Cullinan as captain.
The new team included established players such as Daryll, Albie Morkel, André Nel and Zander de Bruyn.
It affected my place in the ranking and it would be difficult to get a place in the starting XI.
Fortunately, the franchise had high hopes for me: The older players started calling my name and I was included in the group as the rookie, which made me sign a rookie contract.
During our first game at Centurion Park, about 15 players met in the dressing room for Nos to welcome us to this new environment.
I was bowled over when I saw Daryll sitting there. Here I am, a rookie and I share a dressing room with one of the most talented batsmen of his generation. I resolved to do everything in my power to learn as much as possible from him. I knew I would have to earn my place in the starting XI, but the presence of this Protea legend made the merger an incredible opportunity for me to grow.
I took my cricket bag and sat next to him. As I was taught at Affies, I greeted him with a respectful “hello, sir”.
Nos joined us and started giving a generic speech: “Welcome, everyone. Everything is new and we will all need time to get used to it, but let’s make the most of this opportunity. Team selections will be difficult, but …”
I wasn’t really paying attention. I was sitting next to one of my heroes.
Then, a few minutes into the speech, Daryll raised his hand and told the coach to shut up. Then he turned to me: “What the f**k are you doing next to me? Why the f**k are you sitting here?”
The dressing room fell dead silent. Nos tried to brush off this interruption and continued talking. But after a minute or so, Daryll interrupted again: “No, stop.”
He then turned to me: “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.
I froze.”Take your bag and sit in the bath,” he continued to scold. “You don’t deserve to sit here.”
Jacques replied that he didn’t mind sitting on a chair, but that only made the awkwardness worse. I hung my head in shame.
In a matter of moments, the idol from my childhood went from hero to zero. I lost all respect and admiration for him.
That day I resolved never to speak to anyone or act the way he had just done to me and I kept that promise when I became Protea captain. Fortunately, this kind of behavior was not part of the Protea environment I was introduced to under Graeme Smith’s leadership.
In an interview with Sport24, Cullinan acknowledged there had been an incident between him and Du Plessis, but said Nosworthy had not been interrupted and he had not sworn at Du Plessis.
“There was an incident, yes. I spoke to five people this week, one of whom spoke to another three who were part of that meeting,” Cullinan said.
“There was no memory of me interrupting the coach, swearing at Faf, or asking him to take his kit and sit in the bath!
“Not one person confirmed Faf’s version of what I said! Let’s not forget this happened 18 years ago, but Faf seems to quote me as if it was yesterday.
“One person I spoke to, was the coach Dave Nosworthy, who made it clear he would have taken offense to me, according to Faf, telling him to shut up in a team meeting!
“To ask someone to take his kit and sit in the bath is ludicrous! But as they say, don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.”
