Former Australian legendary skipper Ian Chappell is not in favour of Steve Smith being re-appointed as the skipper of the national team and has backed speedster Pat Cummins to take over the mantle whenever current skipper Tim Paine calls it quits from international cricket.
The views of Chappell are in total contrast to Paine as the wicket-keeper batsman recently conceded that he won’t have any issues in Smith returning to the post once he decides to bring down curtains on his international career.
“I think it’s time to move on. To me, if you go back to Smith, you’re going backwards. It’s time to look ahead, not in the rear-vision mirror,” Chappell was quoted as saying by Wide World of Sports.
The sandpaper gate scandal which rocked the cricketing world back in March 2018 has again gained prominence after new revelations from Cameron Bancroft. In a recent interview with the Guardian, Bancroft had hinted that the bowlers might have been aware of the ball being scuffed up with a foreign substance.
However, when reached by the Cricket Australia Integrity Unit, Bancroft backtracked on that issue and said that he doesnt have any new information to disclose. Chappell feels that Cummins’ hopes of leading the side shouldn’t be dented even if he was aware of the ball-tampering scandal three years ago in Cape Town.
“If people start jumping up and down about Pat Cummins captaining Australia if he knew, well the answer is pretty clear because it falls back on Smith,” Chappell said.
“He’s (Steve Smith) the bloke who should have stopped it. The captain’s got the overall say and power to stop it, and he didn’t. I don’t think it should count against Cummins, even if they decide the bowlers did know. Smith is the bloke who should have made sure the whole thing never started,” he further added.