Faf du Plessis has opened up on the details surrounding his test debut against Australia at the Adelaide Oval in 2012, including a surprise gift from Mike Hussey and the on-field sledges as a consequence.
In his new book, Through Fire, Du Plessis revealed that his Chennai teammate Hussey gave the young South African a bottle of red wine ahead of the test match, congratulating him on his debut.
“I was called to the door, where Huss had been waiting for a while,” du Plessis wrote.
“He handed me a bottle of red wine with a handwritten note on the label: ‘Congratulations on your Test debut. I know you're going to have an amazing career. Proud of you!'
“The two of us already had a good relationship after playing together for Chennai in the IPL, but he was Mr Cricket and I was just a debutant. He didn't have to make that gesture, but he did. And he'd waited outside our changing room until we'd finished our celebration.
“It was the most precious gift anyone had ever given me in my life. This wasn't the beer talking. I'm reflecting on it now, a decade later: I still consider it the best gift I had ever received.”
Du Plessis went on to score a century in the Adelaide Oval outing, helping the South Australians to a draw in a game saving effort.
The 38-year-old revealed that the Australians had no issues with loudly sledging him in his debut match, but when heading to the crease in Perth, Du Plessis reveals that he was no longer the target of Australian aggressions, which were instead directed at Hussey for his rapport with the South African.
“I was expecting another salvo of abuse to be aimed at me ... just another day at the office Down Under,” he wrote.
“But the Australian cricketers directed their sledging at their teammate, shouting, ‘Hey, Huss! Here's your best mate again. Why don't you suck him off?' Australia is a tough place to play cricket, and not only for visiting teams.”
Speaking to The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, Hussey confirmed the story, while admitting that he was glad that times were changing in cricket.
“I didn't really want anything made of it, it was just between Faf and I," Hussey said.
"But he brought it up in the press and the boys gave it to me about that. That's a true story, I copped it more than what he did, that's for sure.
“It started with the IPL and you just notice, you run into these guys all the time, there's different players from different countries playing with each other all the time, and so it's not so much that ‘us versus them' mentality that it used to be, and certainly I felt the IPL broke down a bit of the Australian mystique and character around that.
“I prefer it now.
“Some of the stuff in years gone by was just nasty and probably went over the line and was uncalled for, really.
