Australian Test captain Tim Paine has slammed England all-rounder Ben Stokes for his unprofessional behaviour towards crowd during a Test match in Johannesburg last month.
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On the first day of the fourth Test against South Africa in January, Stokes abused a spectator and the incident was caught on camera. He appeared to call the cricket fan a ‘f***ing four-eyed c***’ and later issued apologies for his misconduct.
When things settled a bit, it was revealed the spectator had called red-haired Stokes “Ed Sheeran”, prompting the explosive outburst.
When asked if David Warner and Steve Smith copped anything worse from the English fans during the Ashes 2019, Paine’s response was straightforward.
“Worse than being called Ed Sheeran? I think they might have,” Paine told The Daily Telegraph.
“Absolutely, all the time — and it wasn’t just Steve and Dave, it was everyone.”
Furthermore, Paine advised the English cricketers not to overreact when receiving abuse from spectators, especially considering their assessment of the Barmy Army.
“You cannot react to the crowd, but then always encourage the Barmy Army to do exactly the same, and worse — abuse players.
“They clap (the Barmy Army) at the end of the days’ play and make a big point of thanking them, as like the 12th man, or 13th player.
“Then a little thing like that (Stokes being called Sheeran), they react and all of a sudden, ‘we’re getting abused from the crowd, we’re getting this, we’re getting that.’
“That’s international cricket, just get on with it. It frustrates me, it really does.”
Warner and Smith are likely to be greeted by some hostile fans when Australia face South Africa for the T20 series-opener at the Wanderers on Friday (February 20) night.
Paine said the Australian squad had discussed how to approach the vocal South African crowd.
“We made a bit of a thing as a group that we weren’t going to react to it, we were going to rise above it. We know now that’s what we’re going to cop because of what happened in South Africa and that’s fine,” Paine admitted.
“The worst thing you can do is react to it and as we saw in South Africa recently, it just makes the story bigger and puts more heat into something that had he (Stokes) kept walking, then no one would have even known about. It’s been a big focus of ours, is being able to bat it off and get on with it.
“I felt the way both Steve and Dave handled themselves and handled what was thrown at them off the field, I thought they were both absolutely exceptional and I think they will be again in South Africa.
“Obviously there’s going to be times when it’s going to be difficult for them, but that’s where it’s going to be important for their teammates and the staff to get around them and help them through it — and I’m sure they will.”
