ICC’s ruling stuns Smith

STEVE Smith has explosively claimed that the Kagiso Rabada shoulder bump was harder than it looked and expressed bewilderment that the ICC didn’t bother seeking his side of the story to find out.

Any hope of frayed tensions being repaired ahead of to- night’s crunch third Test in Cape Town appear shot, after the Australian captain refused to sugar coat his disapproval of Rabada’s animated send- off, and the ICC’s toothless approach to implementing the rules of the game.

Smith is dumbfounded that the governing body would choose to give a green light to on- field physical contact and condemned the judicial appeal process for ripping apart Jeff Crowe’s original verdict on Rabada and essentially hanging the respected match referee out to dry.

Despite the dangerous precedent he believes has been set, Smith will still instruct his bowlers to allow opposition batsmen their personal space, but admits the floodgates have now been opened for teams to push those boundaries and also appeal everything.

Smith never wanted to make a big deal of the Rabada bump, but for a case with such huge ramifications for the game, he can’t fathom how his version of events wasn’t sought by an independent commissioner, who was happy to hear South Africa’s argument for six hours.

“Interesting. I certainly think he bumped me a little bit harder than it actually looked on the footage,” said Smith.

“It didn’t bother me too much. ( But) he’s won the battle. What’s the point of over- celebrating and getting in the face of a batter? You’ve already won the battle.

“But they’ve obviously decided what is deliberate contact and what is not, and apparently it wasn’t.

“No I didn’t ( get approached to give evidence). It’s pretty interesting when you’re … looking for evidence.”