Australia captain Steve Smith has launched an extraordinary attack on Monty Panesar, mocking the English cricketing cult hero for his ill-fated appearance on BBC quiz show Mastermind.
On the eve of a hotly-anticipated Ashes series, Australia’s captain used his pre-match press conference to launch a targeted broadside on Panesar, who recently said England should “get into” Smith over his involvement in sandpaper-gate in 2018.
Smith was the Australia captain when the rookie opener Cameron Bancroft stored sandpaper in his trousers to rub on the ball in search of reverse swing.
Bancroft was banned for nine months by Australia while Smith and his vice-captain David Warner, painted as the mastermind of the plot, received year-long bans. Australia’s bowlers, including current captain Pat Cummins, have always maintained they knew nothing about it beforehand.
Smith has played in three Ashes series since returning from his ban in 2019, but Panesar encouraged England to “make him feel guilty”.
“Ben Stokes and the England team have got to make Steve Smith feel guilty and play on that,” he said.
“Say something like, ‘I don’t think it’s ethical that he’s the captain, I don’t think he played the game fairly’.
“Really get into him and make him feel guilty about it. Make him feel like. ‘they’re probably right, I shouldn’t be here, I shouldn’t be doing this.’
“I hope that England uses it as an advantage and don’t just get quiet about it because we know he bats well when he’s captaining Australia.
“If it were the opposite, the Australian media would be all over it. They would have said, if it was any of the English players, ‘the cheaters have arrived’. Right?”
Smith was surprisingly asked about the comments in just the fourth question of his press conference, and launched straight into Panesar.
