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Usually, cricketers are not that enthusiastic about fronting the media. They don’t mind doing it, but would rather be somewhere else. Polite enough questions are thrown by journalists, straight enough answers are given, then everyone gets on with their day. But just occasionally, the opposite is true. Sometimes, a player will have something more meaningful to say. Before the third Test at Cape Town beginning Thursday, Steve Smith had plenty on his mind and was in the mood to share.
As captain, he was naturally curious as to the appeal process that led to Kagiso Rabada avoiding suspension. As the batsman the South African made contact with, he was baffled not to have been invited to give evidence. He thought the match referee was thrown under the proverbial bus by the ruling. Then, for added spice, he said it was “a load of garbage” that Vernon Philander questioned his integrity in relation to the incident. And they are just selected highlights.
“Obviously they’ve deemed the contact not to be deliberate,” the Australian skipper began when reflecting on the unexpected development. “I certainly think he bumped me a little bit harder than it actually looked.” Given the man overseeing the appellate hearing, Michael Heron QC, determined that he could not be “comfortably satisfied” Rabada’s contact was deliberate, Smith appeared infuriated. “I did not,” he said pointedly when asked if he had been offered the chance to state his version of events. “It’s pretty interesting when you’re looking for evidence and those kinds of things. The other person involved not getting asked about it is pretty interesting.”
The intrigue continued with Smith giving the Proteas spearhead another gentle character assessment. “What’s the point of over-celebrating and getting in the face of a batter?” he asked. “You’ve already won the battle. But they’ve obviously decided what’s deliberate contact and what’s not and apparently it wasn’t.”
Smith was more forceful again when reflecting on Philander’s tweet that compared him to a footballer taking a dive. “[It was] a bit over the top,” he retorted. “I had just been given out so I was trying to see whether I could find a way to still be out in the middle. Unfortunately, I couldn’t. I think that’s all a load of garbage, to be honest with you.”
It should now be doubly fun when the pair square up at Newlands, the ground where the local seamer has 47 Tests wickets at just 16 a pop.
The tourists have a lot of respect for Jeff Crowe, the match referee who handed out demerit points on six occasions in two Tests at Durban and Port Elizabeth. “I do [feel for him],” Smith said. “The way he handled both sides throughout the two Test matches, I thought he did a terrific job. I’d be feeling a bit annoyed if I was him, to be perfectly honest.” His replacement, Andy Prycroft, has already briefed senior players from both sides in an effort to maintain calm in the days ahead.
Then there is Smith’s contention that Rabada’s reprieve could lead to a flood of appeals lodged by teams willing to roll the dice when a player has fallen foul of the referee’s ruling. “If you see guys getting off then perhaps guys will appeal a bit more,” he forecast. “You always want your best players available to play, so maybe, particularly now that we know people can get off, that’s for sure. That’s a possibility in the future.”
As for the principle that body contact is unacceptable between players, Smith argued that too could be opened to wide-ranging reinterpretation. “The ICC have set the standard, haven’t they?” he said. “There was clearly contact out in the middle. I certainly won’t be telling my bowlers to go out there and after you take a wicket go and get in their space. I don’t think that is on and part of the game. But the standard has been set.”
When the conversation moved into the more familiar pre-match territory, Smith stopped short of confirming an unchanged XI. That call, he explained, would be made once the two Mitchells – Starc and Marsh – have proven their fitness following calf and groin strains respectively. But both bowled at length off their full run-ups in practice on Tuesday.
What might concern the Proteas camp more than Smith’s stern words on the Rabada case is that he feels he is back in business with the bat – perhaps even better than during his home Ashes romp – despite it being the back end of a long season. “My hit today was the best for six months,” he said. “It probably was the opposite through the summer when I didn’t feel I was hitting the ball that well but my mind was in a good place. Maybe now my mind is not in as good a space as it was, but I feel now I am hitting the ball better. It’s nice to mix and match between the two, but if I get the two in the right place together hopefully it will mean big runs.”
The pitch, green to the eye, is getting harder by the day according to the captain. For Nathan Lyon’s part – always better at assessing these matters given his former life as a curator – he is convinced it will be the slowest of the tracks so far. As to whether the surface might be sped up by the home side now that Rabada is available, Smith said he couldn’t possibly comment. But by this point, he had well and truly given his view of the world.'
(GUARDIAN)
