Australian captain Steve Smith has taken a hilarious swipe at Monty Panesar in his press conference on the eve of the first Ashes Test in Perth, mocking his appearance on game show ‘Mastermind’ — prompting the former England spinner to reply with a newspaper column declaring the champion batter a “cheat”.
“If I’m guilty of anything, it is having bad general knowledge. And that is better than being a cheat,” Panesar wrote in the Telegraph.
Panesar made headlines in the build-up to the series by saying that the England team and the British tabloids should target Smith over the Sandpapergate scandal.
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“Ben Stokes and the England team have got to make Steve Smith feel guilty and play on that,” Panesar said.
“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,” he added.
“I hope that England uses it as an advantage and don’t just get quiet about it because we know he bats well when he’s captaining Australia.
“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?”
Smith did not miss his chance to return serve.
Shortly after announcing that Jake Weatherald and Brendan Doggett will make their debuts on Friday, Smith was asked by a reporter about Panesar’s comments.
The champion batter clearly came prepared as he referenced Panesar’s embarrassing 2019 appearance on UK quiz show Mastermind.
“I’m gonna go off topic for a second here,” Smith said. “Who have you in the room have seen Mastermind and Monty Panesar on that?
“Any of you? Yeah. Well those of you that have, you’ll understand where I’m coming from, and those of you haven’t, do yourself a favour because it’s pretty comical.
“Anyone that believes that Athens is in Germany, that’s a start, Oliver Twist is a season of the year and America is a city, doesn’t really bother me those comments.
“Yeah, that’s as far as I’ll go with that one.”
Panesar admitted that his Mastermind performance was a “shocker”, but then unloaded on Smith, saying that he could not believe he had brought up the game show on the eve of the Ashes. He claimed to have gotten inside the Aussie’s head, and questioned how he’d fare when under fire from Ben Stokes and company after displaying “massive weakness and mental vulnerability”.
“It’s bad knowledge, but at least it isn’t ball-tampering. I would actually ask Steve whether he can look himself in the mirror yet and admit that he was part of “sandpapergate”, the worst example of Australian cheating in history,” Panesar wrote.
“To think that he wanted to talk about me before one of the biggest days of his career – when he will lead Australia out against England as he stands in for absent captain Pat Cummins – is flattering, and nothing short of hilarious.”
Panesar claimed that Smith’s crack may haunt him through the Ashes, and that England may now be intent on sledging the fill-in Australian skipper.
“There is another problem that Steve may not have considered: the Barmy Army. I have already seen England fans coming up with chants to be sung at him as he walks to the crease, and I cannot wait to hear some new ones. What about: “He’s in your head, in your head, Monty, Monty”?
“Those chants are going to follow him every innings, at every Test, for the next six weeks. He has made himself a target for the Barmy Army and history shows they never fail to hit the target. That could really rattle him.
“I think England might give him grief now because of this, because it brings sandpapergate back to the boil. If I was Jofra Archer, I would be telling him “I’m swinging the ball even without sandpaper!”, or if I was Joe Root I’d be in his ear, “tell us how you do it mate, fine or coarse paper? Tell us the tricks of your trade”.
“Suddenly, if he does not score any runs in Perth, that pressure will pile up and we could see weakness spread across a squad who may start to question their own captain.”
