Steve Smith, Australia’s acting captain, has confirmed his team for Friday’s opening Ashes Test – but saw his team announcement was overshadowed by an extraordinary verbal attack on Monty Panesar after the former England spinner suggested Ben Stokes and his touring team should try to upset him by rehashing the infamous sandpaper ball-tampering controversy of 2018.
Smith insisted the comments “didn’t really bother me”, but apparently demonstrated the opposite by raking over Panesar’s notoriously miserable appearance on the TV quiz Mastermind in 2019.
Panesar later hit back at Smith, saying on BBC Radio 5 Live: “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. We’ve both made mistakes. I made mine on a quiz show, he made his on a cricket field.”
Smith’s acerbic response followed an interview with an online betting company when Panesar had urged England’s players to: “Say something like: ‘I don’t think it’s ethical that he’s the captain. I don’t think he played the game fairly.’ Really get into him and make him feel guilty about it. Make him feel like: ‘They’re probably right, I shouldn’t be here, I shouldn’t be doing this.’ This is where the UK media must also focus and put pressure. Use it as a way to help England. If it were the opposite, the Australian media would be all over it. They would have said, if it was any of the English players: ‘The cheaters have arrived.’ Right?”
Asked whether he had seen these comments, Smith launched into an apparently prepared answer. “I’m going to go off topic here … Who of you in the room has seen Mastermind, and Monty Panesar on that? Any of you?” he asked a crowded press conference room.
“Those of you that have will understand where I’m coming from. And those of you who haven’t, do yourself a favour because it is pretty comical. 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.”
Question: How many pockets are there on a full-sized snooker table?
Panesar: Six – correct
Question: Which sign of the zodiac is represented by a crab?
Panesar: Scorpion
Answer: Cancer
Question: What is the title of AA Milne’s stage adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s children’s novel, The Wind in the Willows?
Panesar: Harry Potter
Answer: Toad of Toad Hall
Question: Henry VIII had three wives called Catherine, two called Anne and another who died shortly after she gave birth to the future Edward VI. What was her name?
Panesar: Elizabeth
Answer: Jane
Question: What is the standard international unit of absolute temperature? It is indicated by the letter K.
Panesar: Pass
Answer: Kelvin
Question: Which Asian island city state is served by Changi International Airport?
Panesar: Shanghai
Answer: Singapore
Question: Birds described as ‘pelagic’ spend most of their lives flying over what?
Panesar: The sky
Answer: The sea
Question: In what ’97 film do a group of unemployed men in Sheffield become strippers for a night in their local working men’s club?
Panesar: The Dream Boys
Answer: The Full Monty
Question: In which city is the Olympiastadion, built for the 1972 Olympics and where Germany’s national football team played international matches until 2001?
Panesar: Oh gosh, Athens?
Answer: Munich
Question: What is the title of the first volume of CS Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia to be published? Chronologically, it follows The Magician’s Nephew.
Panesar: CJ Lewis
Answer: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Question: Kimberlite and igneous rock, named after the South African city of Kimberley, is a rich source of what very precious stones?
Panesar: Pass
Answer: Diamonds
Question: What were the five guys named in the title of the hit musical that was a tribute to the jazz bluesman Louis Jordan?
Panesar: Pass
Answer: Five Guys Named Moe
Question: In an 1819 poem, what season of the year does Keats describe as ‘a season of mist and mellow fruitfulness’?
Panesar: Oliver Twist
Answer: Autumn
Question: In which city is the television comedy series, Cheers, set?
Panesar: America
Answer: Boston
Question: What national survey has been held in Britain every 10 years since 1801, except for 1941 because of the Second World War?
Panesar: “…”
Answer: Census
The next question to Smith was about how he had changed as a captain since he first took the role in 2014. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m pretty chilled. I’m a lot more relaxed these days.”
His reaction to Panesar’s comments also appeared to contradict his preferred approach to pre-Ashes hype. “It’s pretty standard,” he said, later in the press conference. “I’ve been involved in a few now and there’s always so many words said before the series. For us, I think it’s about just ignoring the outside and concentrating on our processes, what we do well as a team, and trusting and backing that throughout.”
Smith revealed his starting XI, in whichboth Jake Weatherald and Brendan Doggett make their Test debuts in the absence of Pat Cummins, who has looked good in the nets this week, and Josh Hazlewood, about whose chances of playing the second Test in Brisbane Smith admitted he had “no idea”.
Cameron Green drops down to his familiar No 6 role while Marnus Labuschagne is rewarded for his stunning domestic form and returns at No 3, with Beau Webster dropped.
“When he’s batting at his best at No 3, it makes us a very, very good cricket side,” Smith said of Labuschagne. “We couldn’t really leave him out after he came back and did exactly what was told of him. The way he’s batted for Queensland has been amazing.”
The 36-year-old also indicated his likely decision should he win the toss. Asked whether he had decided which bowler would share the new ball with Mitchell Starc Smith strongly hinted that he would prefer to bat first, saying: “We’ll see in the morning – or hopefully two mornings.” His preference for batting first comes as little surprise: that has been his choice in 17 of the 19 Tests where he has won a toss as captain, including the last 12 in succession.
England are likely to confirm their starting XI after they finish their final training session on Thursday afternoon, having named a trimmed-down 12-man squad on Wednesday. “Everyone, including myself, including all the team, knows that the record of England over the history of Ashes series in Australia isn’t the best,” Stokes said. “But we’ve got the opportunity here over the next two and a half months to write our own history. We’ve come here with a goal, and that goal is to get on that plane in mid-January, returning to England being Ashes winners.”
Australia XI: Jake Weatherald, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith (c), Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland, Brendan Doggett.
