Former South Africa opener and captain Graeme Smith has said David Warner can be “a bit of a fool” following incidents involving the Australia opener in the recently-concluded first Test.

Warner aggressively celebrated the dismissal of AB de Villiers after running the South African batsman out, then became embroiled in a heated exchange with South Africa’s wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock on the fourth day of the Test when the players were leaving the field for tea. Video footage showed Warner had to be restrained by his teammates during the altercation.

The ICC is now investigating the incident.

“The Aussies were pretty fired up at that time pushing for a victory,” Smith told cricket.com.au. “But he (Nathan Lyon, one of the players holding Warner back) is an experienced cricketer. I think he’ll probably say it was unnecessary himself.

“We’ve got used to Davey over the years. I think the less interest you take in him the better. He can be a bit of a fool at times. It’s best just to let him be.”

Former Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist joined in the criticism, saying such behaviour could turn fans away from the game.

“As an outside observer, I think you would find that a little bit off-putting at times, a little bit bad taste at times,” Gilchrist told SEN Radio. “And the question may even come over all those eras as a general statement.

“Australian teams have generally been at the top of the pile, not every minute of those times, but generally they’re a very competitive, world-class team, and some would say they don’t need to do that.

“Why do you need to present that somewhat ugly look if you’re playing such good cricket?

“And they’re not good images and it’s hard to know, to comment specifically about this incident overnight, and any other time, unless you’re there and know the ins and outs of what was said and what sparked it and the verbal volleys that would have been thrown around.

“Very hard to comment on the detail of it but no denying that some of the parts of the celebration of the run-out of De Villiers and then obviously this incident that I’m sure you’re getting to, of this leaked dressing room footage, it’s not a very good look.

“I think it needs to be considered how to react in certain scenarios and learn from the scenarios.”