Australia's Steve Smith in action during first Ashes Test against England at Perth. (AP)Former Australian batter and coach Darren Lehmann has slammed England for constantly reminding them of the “sandpapergate” incident involving batting talisman Steve Smith, saying that their behaviour felt like they had never done anything wrong in life. The former left-hander felt that folks in England never forgot what had happened in the past and admitted that the 36-year-old’s mental health might be affected by the frequent reminders.
Lehmann was the coach of the Australian side when the incident took place in 2018 during a Test match against South Africa in Cape Town. Smith was banned for 12 months for his involvement in the role.
“The abuse you get is daily. It is unbelievable. He [Smith] is playing every day. It would be worse for him. In England, they just don’t forget. It is like they have never done anything wrong in their life. It is only the ones that drink too much and carry on like pork chops,” Lehmann told ABC after the first Ashes Test.
“It just borders on abuse, but we did the wrong thing, you’ve got to accept it. It’s not great for your mental health, to be completely honest,” he added.
Ahead of the first Test match at Perth, former England spinner Monty Panesar had a war of words with Smith over the “sandpapergate” incident. The 43-year-old had said that the visitors should make Smith feel “guilty” about the incident and question whether it was ethical that he got to lead Australia after his involvement in the incident.
“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 had told an online betting website.
Smith had responded to the comments by bringing up Panesar’s erroneous answers in his appearance on the “Mastermind” show.
“I’m going to go off topic here … Who of you in the room has seen Mastermind, and Monty Panesar on that? Any of you?” Those of you that have will understand where I’m coming from. And those of you who haven’t, do yourself a favour because it is pretty comical. Anyone that believes that Athens is in Germany … that’s a start. [That] Oliver Twist is a season of the year, and America is a city, it doesn’t really bother me those comments. That’s as far as I’ll go with that one,” Smith had said in a pre-match press conference.
Panesar had responded to Smith’s jibe, saying that he had made mistakes on a TV show while the Australian had erred on the cricket field.
“I’ve had some great moments for England and I’ve had shockers, and he’s had some great moments for Australia and he’s obviously had a very big shocker in South Africa. We’ve both made mistakes. I made mine on a quiz show, he made his on a cricket field,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
The second Ashes Test between England and Australia will start at Brisbane on December 4.
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