Former player Ian Chappell slammed Cricket Australia (CA) for appointing Steve Smith as the vice-captain of the Test team despite he had served a 12-month suspension from the sport for his involvement in the 2018 ball-tampering scandal alongside two other teammates.
Smith was named vice-captain while Pat Cummins has been appointed the captain of the Test team after Tim Paine had resigned from the duty after a ‘sexting’ scandal came in the news as well. While the appointment of Cummins was praised by everyone, Smith’s promotion did not go down well with a few as well.
Notably, Steve Smith was sacked from captaincy and banned for a period of two years whereas the vice-captain at the time, David Warner also got a one-year suspension but he has been serving a lifetime ban from captaincy/vice-captaincy as a part of his punishment as well. That’s why Chappell finds it tough to digest why Smith got a different punishment as compared to Warner, despite committing a “greater crime”.
“For starters, I have a problem why is Steve Smith looked upon as a different punishment to David Warner? In fact, if anything, I think Steve Smith’s crime was greater. For a captain to say, ‘I don’t want to know’ when cheating is involved, is not correct. A captain has got to know, he’s got to find out and he’s got to do something about it,” Ian Chappell said on 2GB’s Wide World of Sports program.
Ian Chappell said “cheating is cheating” therefore, both Steve Smith and David Warner should have got a lifetime ban from any kind of leadership position in the team.
“Either Steve Smith has a two-year ban from captaincy and so does David Warner, or Steve Smith has a life ban and so does Dave Warner. Same thing. Cheating is cheating, whether it’s big cheating or little cheating, it’s still cheating in my book,” Ian Chappell concluded.
Pat Cummins and Steve Smith will start their new role in the upcoming Ashes Test series at home against England starting December 8 as well.
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