Paine stands by ‘quirky’ Smith over cheat claim
AUSTRALIA captain Tim Paine leapt to the defence of under-fire Steve Smith yesterday, claiming that he had not deliberately scuffed up the crease during the last day of the third Test against India. Smith, who was banned and sacked as captain in 2018 for his role in Sandpapergate, was caught on stump camera astonishingly scraping at the crease with his foot during a drinks interval on the final day in Sydney. India batsman Rishabh Pant had to re-mark his guard when he returned to bat. ‘He was certainly not changing a guard,’ insisted Paine. ‘I imagine if he was, the India players would have kicked up a bit of a stink at the time. As we know, he has those many Steve Smith quirks — one of those is he is always marking centre (stump). ‘Smith is disappointed with the way it has come across. That is something he does every single game, five or six times per day. He likes to walk up to where he bats and visualise where he is going to play. ‘You could see him up there playing a couple of shots as a left-hander as if it’s where he wanted Nathan Lyon to pitch the ball. It’s one of his mannerisms.’ India batted out the final day to earn a draw, with the series now locked at 1-1 going into Friday’s final Test in Brisbane. But Paine did apologise for sledging India’s Ravichandran Ashwin. The wicketkeeper, who dropped three catches during the innings, called Ashwin a ‘d***head’ and said he was unpopular with his team-mates. ‘I’m bitterly disappointed with the way I went about it,’ said Paine, who was also fined 15 per cent of his match fee for dissent to an umpire on day three. ‘I felt my mood throughout the Test match was a little bit off, the way I spoke to the umpires on day two was also unacceptable. ‘I’ve got to cop that on the chin. It’s not the way I want to lead this Australian team. I always talk to our players about playing this game on skill and not on emotion and I fell short of my own standards and expectations.’