Smith tells of days in tears over ball-tampering
Steve Smith has opened up about the personal lows that followed Australia’s cheating scandal in Cape Town, saying he spent four days in tears.
Smith and David Warner were among the players snapped up in Sunday’s inaugural draft for the Global T20 Canada, a tournament that will be hosted entirely at a ground on the outskirts of Toronto.
The Twenty20 event, which runs June 28-July 15, will be Warner and Smith’s first taste of competitive cricket since the balltampering saga derailed their careers.
Smith continues to train in private, doing some work in the nets with the help of his dad. The former skipper spoke to students at Sydney’s Knox Grammar School yesterday as part of his charity work with the Gotcha 4 Life Foundation.
"I probably spent four days in tears. I was really struggling mentally,’’ Smith told the assembled crowd during a discussion about mental health.
‘‘It certainly was the toughest thing that I’ve had to do.’’
Smith and Warner, both stripped of their leadership positions and estimated to have lost at least $5 million each in sponsorship and playing contracts, remain banned from international cricket until March.
The suspensions also cover domestic T20, one-day and firstclass cricket in Australia but the disgraced duo, along with Cameron Bancroft, are free to play in leagues around the world.
Warner will hit the track, gym and nets this month during some sessions with NSW, who returned to work on Monday following their off-season break.
‘‘Thanks to the Winnipeg Hawks for selecting me to play in what will be a really competitive tournament. Prep steps up this week in the nets,’’ Warner posted on Twitter shortly after completing a 2km time trial with some NSW teammates.
There could potentially be some awkward SCG catch-ups for the opener, who declared earlier this year he will do everything he can to ‘‘earn back the respect of the Australian public’’.
Test quicks Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood will soon ramp up their rehabilitation from injuries in Sydney.
Warner’s relationship with his test team-mates was strained during the ball- tampering scandal and ensuing fallout, in which Cricket Australia fingered the 31-year-old as the architect of a premeditated plan to cheat by using sandpaper to scuff the ball.
However, new captain Tim Paine has repeatedly rubbished claims that members of the team told CA they never wanted to play in the same XI as Warner again.
Warner will travel to Darwin after his T20 stint in Toronto, having already signed up to play a couple of one-day games in the NT’s Strike League.
Warner and Smith have both agreed to play grade cricket in Sydney this summer, for Randwick-Petersham and Sutherland respectively.