Steven Smith and Monty Panesar (PHOTO: X)
Steven Smith has responded to a proposal by the ex-England spinner, Monty Panesar, to make him apologize about his involvement in the 7-year-old Sandpaper-gate incident of ball-tampering, by reminding Panesar of his unsuccessful appearance on Celebrity Mastermind.
Smith, who lost the captaincy of the Australia team in 2017-18 after his team was caught with sandpaper to change the state of the ball in a Test match in South Africa, has been reinstated into the position temporarily to play the first Test of the Ashes in Perth on Friday, with Pat Cummins out with a back injury.
Panasar, in a pre-series interview with an internet betting firm, had mentioned that the players in England should enquire about the morality of his re-hiring and requested the UK press to pressurise the hire as well. Had it been the other way round, the Australian media would have had its way, Panesar said. Had it been any of the English players, they would have said, the cheaters are coming. Right?”
During what seemed to have been a pre-determined response to his pre-match press conference, Smith said that he was going off-topic in responding to the remarks of Panesar.
Who has in the room seen Mastermind, and Monty Panesar on that? Any of you?” Prior to enumerating some of the confused responses which Panesar had provided to presenter John Humphrys in a virally famous moment in 2019, Smith claimed the following.
Steve added, “Those of you that have will understand where I’m coming from. If you haven’t, do yourself a favour because it is pretty comical. Anyone that believes that Athens is in Germany, that’s a start, or that Oliver Twist is a season of the year and America is a city.”
He futher shared, “It doesn’t really bother me, those comments. That’s as far as I’ll go with that one,” subsequently adding that he was “pretty chilled” on his return to the captaincy. “I’m a lot more relaxed these days.”
It was an extension of a normal pre-Ashes manic lead-up, that has included off-field, and street-fighting insults by former players on both sides, and some of the eye-catching headlines in the local dailies.
A response to the remarks made by Panesar by Smith did however seem to be inconsistent with how he perceived the Ashes fake war. It is fairly normal, he added later. I had been taking part in some by now and there are always so many words spoken before the series. In my case, I believe it was simply ignoring the outside and focusing on our processes, what we are good at as a team and believing and supporting that all the way.
Panesar (167 wickets in 50 Tests) has had no involvement in Test cricket since he appeared on the 2013-14 Ashes tour to England on the 5-0 whitewash side.
With 13 years on the line, Ashish Kumar Singh loves everything when it comes to movies, music, travel and pop culture. Formerly employed at ANI, Pinkvilla, India Today and HT, Ashish has interviewed some of the top celebrities of India, including Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Ranveer Singh, Ranbir Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan, among others. Breaking news excites him and deadlines are what he chases. Interviewing comes naturally to him. Hit him up at ashish.kumar02singh@gmail.com.
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