Monty Panesar has hit back at Steve Smith’s barbed swipe ay him by taking comfort by from the fact he made his mistakes “on a quiz show” while the stand-in Australia captain “made his on the field”.
Smith, who was stripped of the Australia captaincy following the notorious 2018 ball-tampering incident, is once again leading the side for the opening Test in Perth due to Pat Cummins’ injury.
During Thursday’s pre-match press conference, Smith launched an unexpected broadside at Panesar, who had recently called for travelling England fans and media to barrack the Australian batter over the 2018 events.
In what appeared to be a meticulously prepared response, Smith sought to undermine Panesar’s credibility by referencing his 2019 appearance on Celebrity Mastermind, where he answered only one general knowledge question correctly, despite achieving six correct answers in his specialist subject round.
Panesar, who represented England in 50 Tests between 2006 and 2013, has now responded to the 36-year-old by reminding him that his sporting sins far outweigh his shortcomings as a quizzer.
"I've had some great moments for England and I've had shockers, and he's had some great moments for Australia and he's obviously had a very big shocker in South Africa,” Panesar told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"We've both made mistakes. I made mine on a quiz show, he made his on a cricket field."
Smith’s unexpected diatribe, which drew laughter from the room, suggested Panesar may have succeeded in getting under his skin, despite Smith’s insistence to the contrary.
"I’m going to go off topic here, who in the room has seen Mastermind, and Monty Panesar on that? Any of you?" Smith began, before detailing specific answers from the clip.
"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. It doesn’t really bother me, those comments. That’s as far as I’ll go with that one."
Panesar, while “pleased” that Smith was directing his mental energy to memorising his questions and answers so close to the first Test, was surprised the Australian batsman responded in such a way.
"I think everyone from my media friends, to everyone in the media, have said they couldn't believe Smith kind of responded in that way," added Panesar.
"I thought everyone thought it would have been just a bit more, 'right it's OK, yeah fine, I cheated, it's not a problem, I've moved on from that, it's not an issue'.
"But because he's done it in this way, I think he's kind of opened up now for the England boys to really sort of go hard at him, play a few mind games with him and that could be the difference where he gets out early.
"And suddenly they'll be sort of saying thanks Monty for just trying to engage in that conversation, of maybe seeing if you talk about sandpaper will it make him feel a little bit guilty or not?
"Look, I know I'm guilty of bad general knowledge but not ball-tampering. And I'll take that everyday."
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