Australian spin wizard Shane Warne is not happy with Cricket Australia’s decision to hand Steve Smith the vice-captaincy of the Test team.
Cricket Australia (CA) was in a search of Test captain after Tim Paine stepped down following his sexting scandal. After a lot of discussions and interviews, the governing body then on Friday (26th November) named premier pacer Pat Cummins as their 47th Men’s Test captain.
Apart from naming Cummins as the Test captain, CA also named Steve Smith as the vice-captain for Australia in the longest format of the game.
The decision to bring Steve Smith back into the leadership role came as a surprise to many. Following the ball-tampering saga of 2018, he was banned from playing cricket for a year and was also was handed a two-year leadership ban.
It was believed that he won't get a leadership gig again even after the punishment time based on CA's statements and the Australian public's reaction to the incident at that time.
Writing in his column for the Herald Sun, former Australian spinner Shane Warne said that despite Steve Smith being the best Test batter in the world he should not be vice-captain of the national team in the longest format of the game.
"We all love Steve Smith and are proud that he's the best Test batsman in the world again. But he should not be the Australian vice-captain,” Shane Warne said.
Warne admitted that Steve Smith received severe punishment and paid a huge price for his sandpaper saga.
He also stressed the fact that Smith’s second chance is to play for Australia and by announcing him as vice-captain of the Test side, Cricket Australia should throw their code of conduct out of the window.
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"Everyone makes mistakes, we know that and we've all moved on from sandpaper-gate. But that happened under Steve Smith's captaincy; he allowed that to happen on his watch. I think the punishment he was given was way too severe, which I said at the time. He paid a huge price for his mistake.
“But his second chance is getting to play for Australia again and in my opinion announcing him as vice-captain opens up CA (Cricket Australia) for ridicule and criticism, and they should throw the code of conduct out the window,” he said.
Steve Smith will take over the leadership role when Australia will take on England in the first match of the Ashes 2021-22 at Gabba on 8th December.
(IANS Inputs)
