Steve Smith Takes a Cheeky Dig at Monty Panesar Over Sandpapergate Remarks

The stand-in captain of Australia, Steve Smith, has made a sarcastic comment about the retired English spinner Monty Panesar following the recent remarks made by Panesar regarding the contentious Sandpapergate scandal. Smith will lead the Australian team in the 1st Ashes Test, after the regular captain, Pat Cummins, was ruled out due to an injury.

The First Ashes Test between England and Australia will start tomorrow at Perth Cricket Stadium.

Earlier this month, Panesar suggested that the England squad and the UK media should target Smith by rekindling the Sandpapergate scandal, where Australia was caught tampering with the ball using sandpaper under Smith’s leadership.

“If it were the opposite, the Australian media would be all over it,” Panesar had said. “They would have said, if it were any of the English players, ‘the cheaters have arrived.’ Right?”

Smith has reacted to these statements in his pre-Ashes press conference, referring to Panesar making headlines after appearing on the quiz show Celebrity Mastermind, where he botched basic general-knowledge questions.

“Who in the room has seen Mastermind and Monty Panesar on that? Any of you?” Smith asked reporters. “Those of you who have will understand where I’m coming from. If you haven’t, do yourself a favour because it is pretty comical. Anyone who 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 said with a smile.

Despite such an acidic response, Smith still stated that he was not offended by the remarks made by Panesar. He said he is much more relaxed now, particularly since he returned to the captaincy.

“It doesn’t really bother me, those comments. That’s as far as I’ll go with that one,” Smith said. “I’m a lot more relaxed these days,” he added, later stressing that he was “pretty chilled” about the whole situation.