Cricket
3 weeks ago
"Lazy captain" Smith defended by great amid cheat slur
By SEN
Steve Smith ignited a bizarre pre-Ashes war of words with Monty Panesar, mocking the spinner for errors he made on a quiz show, and now the England star has doubled down on his sandpapergate sledging of the Australia captain.
In a pre-Test press conference, Smith ridiculed Pansar over his appearance on celebrity Mastermind in 2019. He managed jut one correct answer in general knowledge.
Returning serve to Smith's quip that anyone who thought "Athens was in Germany" or "Oliver Twist is a season" should not be taken seriously, Panesar told the BBC: "I've had some great moments for England and I've had shockers.
"He's had some great moments for Australia and he's obviously had a very big shocker in South Africa.
"We've both made mistakes. I made mine on a quiz show, he made his on a cricket field.
"What makes it more sort of pleasing is that the night before the Test match, he's watching my Mastermind clips, memorising the questions and the answers.
"And it kind of feels like England are already in his head and I can rattle the Aussies from sitting on my sofa.
"It's opened up now for the England boys to really go hard at him, play a few mind games with him. It could be that difference where he gets out early and suddenly they're say "thanks Monty".
"I know I'm guilty of bad general knowledge, not ball tampering.
"It's obviously still a sensitive subject for him and I think no one thought he would respond in this way. I suppose he's clearly trying to deviate from the subject, but still quite a sensitive one for him."
Panesar, who played 50 Tests between 2006 and 2013, last week encouraged England players to make Smith "feel guilty" about his part in the ball tampering scandal which rocked the cricket world back in 2018.
Not content with what he said to the BBC, Panesar then went again in his column for The Telegraph.
"If I’m guilty of anything, it is having bad general knowledge. And that is better than being a cheat," he wrote.
"It’s bad knowledge, but at least it isn’t ball-tampering. I would actually ask Steve whether he can look himself in the mirror yet and admit that he was part of “sandpapergate”, the worst example of Australian cheating in history.
"Steve has just displayed a massive weakness and mental vulnerability that, at this level of elite sport, you cannot afford to do.
"Some people have suggested what he did was bullying, but I don’t believe that. He’s tried to deflect the attention on to me and I get that.
"But what I do question is whether he should be Australia captain given what he has done? That for me raises serious questions about Australia’s leadership and a lack of it across the squad."
Smith copped a 12 ban from cricket for his role in the saga which also involved David Warner and Cameron Bancroft.
Aussie cricket great Ian Healy has gone into bat for Smith.
"Gee they care about getting in the opposition's head the poms – too much!" Healy exclaimed on SEN.
"I was going to give it to Monty, he had one great batting effort, he staved us off in Cardiff, we couldn’t get him out.
"Monty thinks he has the right to give it to our interim captain. He’s wrong too. Smith did nothing wrong other than being a lazy captain in the SA debacle. It happened under his watch. Two of his players hatched a plan, that he asked about but then said he didn’t want to know. He should have waited for the answer and stopped it. He got a year out.
"Monty, I think, still thinks Smith was scratching the ball…no chance."
