Monty Panesar takes one other swipe at Steve Smith as field workplace Ashes feud re-ignited
Former England star Monty Panesar has responded to Australia captain Steve Smith ahead of the Second Ashes Test, with their feud ongoing
Former England cricket star Monty Panesar has hit back at remarks made by Australia captain Steve Smith in the lead-up to the Ashes series.
The feud between Panesar and Smith began before the opening Test in Perth last month, where England crumbled to defeat inside just two days. Ben Stokes’ side endured a crushing eight-wicket loss at the Optus Stadium and have since travelled to Brisbane for the Second Test at The Gabba.
Prior to the series opener, Panesar had suggested England should use the infamous sandpaper scandal from 2018 to make the Aussies “feel guilty” and hand the touring side a potential edge. Smith fired back by bringing up Panesar’s stint on BBC’s Celebrity Mastermind from 2019, taking a swipe at the former spinner’s general knowledge, reports the Mirror.
“I’m going to go off topic here,” Smith remarked. “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. If you haven’t, do yourself a favour because it is pretty comical. Anyone who believes that Athens is in Germany, 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.”
Now Panesar has fired back at Smith’s dig as the ongoing spat between the ex-England ace and the Australian captain shows no signs of cooling down.
“I was a little bit surprised knowing that he knew my answers to the questions the day before the Test match and the funny thing was that I’m able to rattle Australians by sitting on the sofa,” Panesar said in an interview with BOYLE Sports.
“That gave me a bit of pleasure but it would have been nice if England had won that Test match, that would have been even better.
“The British media didn’t really make anything out of it when I was talking about the sandpaper incident. Maybe Ben Stokes can use it as a psychological edge.
“Steve Smith had obviously read about it and he was thinking in the press conference that the British media were going to bring it up, but I didn’t think the British media was going to bring it up at all. But then he’d memorised everything and I thought, well I’m going to reply back, why not?”
Panesar continued: “He only got 17 [runs] and when he first came out to bat, you could sense his nerves. The Barmy Army were singing [to the tune of the Cranberries’ Zombie] ‘He’s in your head, Monty, Monty, Monty!’ and I thought, he’s not himself and he wasn’t batting like we know Steve Smith can.
“He’s obviously a great player, one of the greatest of all time and he will be remembered as one of the greatest Australian batsmen.
“We all know how great of a captain he is – he’s strategically very good and the thinking from him to bring Travis Head to the top of the order was great.
“It’ll be up to the England team whether they really use that as an ammunition, a psychological edge or does Ben Stokes think, I don’t want to go down that route.”
