Former Australian cricketer and well-known cricket pundit Ian Chappell has come down heavily on Cricket Australia for their decision of making Steve Smith the vice-captain of their Test squad, ahead of the all-important Ashes series.
Amidst, Tim Paine’s sexting scandal, Cricket Australia have once again put their weight behind Steve Smith after the infamous sandpaper gate, after which Smith, along with two other Australian cricketers, was banned from playing cricket.
Ian Chappell, who is known for speaking things as he sees them, ha objected to this decision and said that Smith shouldn’t be given the responsibility after what he did in South Africa in 2018, which led to a massive embarrassment for not just Cricket Australia, but Australia as a nation.
Chappell asked why Smith is being treated differently than David Warner, whose crime, in his view, was lesser as compared to Smith.
“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 Smith’s crime was greater. For a captain to say, ‘I don’t want to know’ when cheating is involved, is not correct,” Ian Chappell said.
“A captain’s got to know, he’s got to find out and he’s got to do something about it. Either Smith has a two-year ban from captaincy and so does Warner, or Smith has a life ban and so does Warner,” Chappell added.
“Cheating is cheating, whether it’s big cheating or little cheating, it’s still cheating in my book. If I’d have cheated as an Australian captain — I mean I made a lot of mistakes but I didn’t cheat. And if I had cheated, and if I had done what Time Paine did, I would have expected Cricket Australia to not ask me to resign, they would have taken the job away from me and made sure I didn’t continue to play as a player,” Ian Chappell added further.
