On the eve of the most anticipated Ashes for a decade, Steve Smith’s awkward swipe at Monty Panesar shows that the past still tugs harder at him than he admits.
After a torrent of some of the most puerile and excessive pre-Ashes volleys on both sides of any series over the last decade, the eve of the series offered one last bluster. Steve Smith, acting up as captain for the first Test of a series which has almost gained mythical status before it has begun, took aim at Monty Panesar. For context, a week ago Panesar gave an interview in which he urged England’s players to “really get into Smith’s head” over Sandpapergate, and questioned the ethics of Smith standing in as captain.
Players should be, and are, free to respond to any criticism they feel unjustified. But there are different levels of criticism. Panesar’s interview appeared on the betting site AceOdds and barely touched the surface of the pre-series media mudslinging when they were published. The best of the best, of whom Smith is one of, can carry themselves above most of the noise – and a weak jab from a retired player who has joined the ranks of those singing for their supper on the post-playing circuit, shouldn’t register.
Nevertheless, it clearly hit a nerve. “Who of you in the room has seen Mastermind?” Smith asked when Panesar’s quotes were raised. “Anyone that believes that Athens is in Germany… that’s a start. [That] Oliver Twist is a season of the year, and America is a city… it doesn’t really bother me, those comments. That’s as far as I’ll go with that one.”
Perhaps Smith genuinely wasn’t bothered by Panesar’s fairly docile reference to the ball-tampering saga that almost devastated his career nearly eight years ago. Maybe the planning involved to plant that question in the last press conference before the first Test, the homework he must have done on the Mastermind clip in question, and the awkward delivery were intended to refocus the narrative around the Australia team. They’re old, they’re injured, they’ve got two debutants, and if England can just hold it together, maybe the Ashes are there for the taking.
This was rewinding the clock back to 2017, four months before the carnage of Sanderpapergate, to another bizarre press conference when Smith sat laughing at another jab blown out of proportion. At the time, they described Jonny Bairstow ‘headbutting’ Cameron Bancroft in toe-curling detail, and the inference was that Bairstow was “weird”. Just as Bairstow’s British bulldog-like presence can be easy to take aim at, Panesar – and that Mastermind clip in particular – is an even easier target. He’s done it himself: “Even I laughed at it, I can see why everyone’s taking the piss, it was so funny,” he said in 2020.
Smith here, was back in the days of The Bulls, that Australia side who punched down, bullied their opposition on and off the field, and Smith was the one who paid the highest price for it. At that time the best Test batter in the world, and a long stint captaining his country ahead of him, he almost lost everything. Since then, he’s clawed it all back. His leadership ban overturned, not only has he captained his country in seven Tests since 2021, but he’s often the de-facto leader on the field.
While the last few years have seen a decline from the peak of his powers, his greatness is still indisputable. His Test average has come down from its gargantuan peak in the 60s to settle alongside his fellow greats in the mid 50s, and while the last two series have only brought one of his 12 Ashes hundreds, his centuries against India last year were a marker of his continued superiority. Smith is still Australia’s trump card, and in what will almost certainly be his last Ashes series on home turf, and potentially last Ashes series of his career, he has a chance to seal that image miles above the rest.
He goes into the first Test once again with the captain’s armband, facing an England side more fancied than any that’s landed in Australia for the last decade, with a rapid bowling attack they’ll look to target him with. If ever there was an image to bury those sandpaper sledges even deeper, it’s of him victorious, going 1-0 up in a match billed as England’s best opportunity to win a Test in Australia for the first time in 15 years. That image may well be what comes out of the Perth Test, but a cack-handed attempt to appear unbothered by the past hasn’t set the scene in the way he may have hoped.
Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds.
