^^^
Durban: David Warner exploded with anger in a stairwell altercation with South Africa's Quinton de Kock at Kingsmead after derogatory comments were allegedly made about his wife, Candice.
The first Test ended on Monday in the shadow of a major controversy following the leaking of CCTV footage at the ground that showed Warner having to be physically restrained by teammates as he clashed in a heated confrontation with de Kock at the tea break on day four.
The Australian vice-captain and the rest of the team awoke in Durban to news that the footage had been released and published by South African outlet Independent Media.
Warner was so incensed that he needed to be held back by teammate Usman Khawaja, with captain Steve Smith and wicketkeeper Tim Paine also attempting to calm him down before Smith dragged him away.
It emerged on Monday morning here that Warner's rage had been provoked by de Kock allegedly making barbs about his former ironwoman wife as the players walked towards the dressing rooms here on Sunday afternoon.
Warner's wife and his two young children are on tour with him in South Africa.
It was unclear what Warner, who also exchanged words with Faf du Plessis when South Africa's captain emerged from the dressing room, had said back to de Kock in the fiery exchange.
South Africa's team manager Mohammed Moosajee released a statement on Monday morning."It's rather unfortunate that the incident took place and certainly not in the spirit of the game," Moosajee said."The match referee (Jeff Crowe) had spoken to us after the day's play. We will await any further communication from the ICC around this incident."
Australian players travelled to the ground from their hotel in the city's north on Monday morning needing one more wicket to take a 1-0 series lead.
However, the result was relegated to the background by the 31-year-old's run-in with de Kock.
In the nearly five years since the notorious incident at the Walkabout bar in Birmingham with England's Joe Root he has increasingly been a more mild-mannered figure and assumed seniority in the Australian set-up as Smith's deputy as well as a fill-in leader of the national Twenty20 side.
However, Warner has now been thrust back into the limelight for the wrong reasons.
The blow-up with de Kock came during a tense fourth day of the match in which Warner had delivered an emotion-charged spray towards South African's Aiden Markram when the opener played a part in the run out of the Proteas' top batsman AB de Villiers awithout scoring.
Tirade: David Warner is mobbed by teammates after the run out of AB de Villiers for a duck.
Mitchell Starc also clashed verbally with Markram and all-rounder Theunis de Bruyn that afternoon.
Australian great Adam Gilchrist on Monday weighed into the controversy.
"I think with Davey...there is no one denying his capabilities with the bat in hand. It's funny...he came into cricket and had his natural aggression mindset both with bat in hand and in the field," Gilchrist told radio station SEN.
"He used to pride himself being the guy that got into the verbal stoushes and was a leader of the aggressive mindset.
“But he then went the other way and he was very, very outright in saying ‘I’ve put that away, that’s not me any more’.
“It was really extreme the opposite way, and now he’s come back again saying ‘old Davey’s back’ and all his teammates are saying ‘the Reverend’s gone, Bull’s back’.
“It’s always a worry in any situation when someone is so extreme on one direction or the other. I think Davey’s got to find somewhere in between that.
“He does pride himself in being a leader of the team, he did that very well in the T20s as captain but what we’ve seen in the last 24 hours probably isn’t the images that you want your captain projecting.”
Gilchrist said he could thank his teammates for not letting things get further out of hand.
"If they were not there and he goes on the path that he was intending, who knows what would have happened," he said.
"Watching that, once the emotion and the aggression is taken away from it David has to be a little bit disappointed that he ‘s done that and allowed this whole discussion to start up.”
