Cape Town - Professional sport has never been for the faint of heart. It’s a dog-eat-dog world, where insecure seniors look to enforce their superiority over rookies.
But listening to Faf du Plessis’ revelations over the past week about the way he was treated upon entering the Northerns dressing room by former Proteas batter Daryll Cullinan was simply disgusting.
Cullinan has long had a nasty reputation due to his aloofness, probably garnered from being hailed as “the next Graeme Pollock” since his teenage years. Former Proteas spinner Paul Adams also stated at the Social Justice and Nation-Building hearings last year that he was told, “Your gravy train has ended” and “You are a sh*t spinner” by Cullinan.
However, Du Plessis’ allegations in his autobiography have cast Cullinan as a rather mean bully, whose actions would simply not be tolerated in today’s dressingroom.
“I took my cricket bag and sat next to him. As I was taught at Affies, I greeted him with a respectful ‘Hello, sir,’” Du Plessis wrote.
“Nos (coach Dave Nosworthy) 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.’”
Fortunately, the lessons Du Plessis learnt from this awful experience was that he would never treat any other player in the same manner later in his career.
It could easily have had the reverse effect, though, with Du Plessis thinking that this was the norm, and that this culture should be continued throughout his career.
It also provides insight into why Proteas Test captain Dean Elgar would still make reference to “a man’s game”, having come through the SA domestic system in the same era as Du Plessis, and possibly having had similar “role models”.
The world is a different place in 2022, where mental health is a real issue – with even the supposed toughest of cricketers having admitted to needing a time out to address their problems. It doesn’t need the likes of Cullinan anywhere near the game if their intention is to break down their own teammates instead of instilling the confidence to take on the opposition.
@ZaahierAdams