Mitchell Johnson made some startling assumptions about South Africa in his autobiography, Resilient.

The assumptions were in relation to an incident involving David Warner, when the opening batsman decided to impersonate a cop and pulled aside a motorbike on their successful tour of South Africa in 2011, which saw them win the ODI series 2-1.

Warner asked his police escorts for their badges when the side were waiting for their meals at a fast food restaurant, and demanded that the two on the motorbike showed their licenses.

The confrontation was taken lightly in the end as it became obvious that an Australian was trying to pose as a South African cop, but the way Johnson described it, as revealed on Fox Sports Australia, might not be taken too lightly by South Africans in general, adding that ‘everyone has a gun.’

‘Everyone was in pretty high spirits and Davey Warner noticed a motorbike waiting behind us with two people on it.

‘He asked this policeman if he could borrow his badge and jumped out of the car to front them.

‘It was totally crazy and could have gone really wrong. Over there, you can get shot for looking sideways; everyone has a gun.

‘Davey demanded to see their licences and flashed them his badge. They were confused for a while about this Australian passing himself off as a copper, but fortunately they thought it was funny and laughed instead of getting angry.

‘Davey was a bit wilder in those days than he is now.’

Photo: Manus van Dyk/Gallo Images