It is learnt that on Monday afternoon there was a verbal altercation between South Africa's promising left-arm fast bowler, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and bowling coach Vincent Barnes during a net session here at Kingsmead
It is learnt that on Monday afternoon there was a verbal altercation between South Africa's promising left-arm fast bowler, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and bowling coach Vincent Barnes during a net session here at Kingsmead.
It started with Barnes asking Tsotsobe to bowl straight into the pitch, but the latter said he preferred coming from around the pole and throwing the ball down to the stumps. This argument continued for almost five minutes, after which Tsotsobe went over use another strip. However, Barnes said it 'was reserved' for pace spearhead Dale Steyn, who was not present at the nets at the time.
A furious Tsotsobe is then learnt to have walked back all the way to the gate and was followed by team psychologist Dr Henning Gericke, who tried to convince the bowler to return to the nets.
Gericke cooled Tsotsobe down and told him that such things are part and parcel of the game. The bowler has since cooled off and was seen at the nets yesterday.
When contacted SA team manager Mohammed Moosaje, said: "I have no memory of this. If there was something of this nature we would have informed you."
However, a Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN) Union official, who refused to be quoted, admittedu00a0 the incident happened.
The official explained: "The main net session was over, most of the players had left and only Barnes was overlooking some of the bowlers. Tsotsobe has this habit of bowling from around the pole, but Barnes asked him to bowl straight down. They kept arguing about this and then Tsotsobe decided to bowl from the other strip.
Just then, Barnes told Tsotsobe that the other strip was reserved for Steyn.
Reserved"Tsotsobe kept arguing that it was unfair to disallow other bowlers to use a strip claiming it is reserved for Steyn. Tsotsobe felt discriminated,u00a0 started to cry and even called up his mother to inform her about the incident. He later threatened to go away to Port Elizabeth (his home turf) and practice with his Warriors teammates.
"I have known him for a while and have never seen him so angry. I tried to console him, but he was petrified," explained the official.
Some of the ground staff who eavesdropped into the conversation, added: "This is typical. Such things keep happening. By doing this, they are trying to upset Lonwabo's mindset, which will, in turn, lead to him performing badly. There's way too much politics in the team. There are different rules for different people."
