Steve Smith set to be a face of the T20 World Cup in the USA

Steve Smith is set to be one of the stars of the T20 World Cup without facing a ball, after being overlooked for the Australian squad named earlier this week.

Steve Smith is set to be one of the stars of the World Cup without facing a ball.

Residing at his new home in New York City, it’s understood Smith will be used by tournament organisers to help launch cricket’s audacious bid to take America by storm next month.

Australia confirmed on Wednesday its landmark decision to leave the best batsman of his generation out of its 15-man World Cup squad, but Smith will still play an important role as a key promotional face of one of the most significant events in the game’s history.

Smith owns an apartment in Manhattan and is now spending the majority of his time there when not playing cricket for Australia.

The 34-year-old three-time World Cup-winning champion will be in the Big Apple when the joint USA-West Indies World Cup kicks off, and Smith will be used by the ICC, potentially alongside US sports stars, to help build hype in the City that never Sleeps ahead of matches, headlined by the India v Pakistan blockbuster on June 9.

Adam Zampa, Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith pictured touring New York City in 2016. Picture: Getty Images

World Cup matches will be played out of Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, a 34-minute subway ride from the heart of NYC, and Smith’s profile will help sell the game to Americans, and primarily the 600,000 South Asian migrants who call the city home.

If cricket can harness that ready-made and largely untapped audience, this World Cup could become a genuine game-changer for the sport not dissimilar to what the 1994 FIFA World Cup was for football.

It’s likely Smith has played his last T20 international for Australia, but National Selector George Bailey has stated he will need reserve players as back-up in the event of injury, and the added benefit of Smith’s new life in New York City is he’s less than a five-hour flight to the West Indies if an emergency arises.

There has been continued speculation over the past two years around how long Smith might continue playing Test cricket, and his omission from the T20 World Cup squad – the first major team he has been left out of in well over a decade – only adds another layer to that intrigue.

George Bailey said Smith’s omission from the World Cup squad was not necessarily the end of his career. Picture: Getty Images

But Bailey said Smith’s omission from the World Cup squad was not necessarily the end of his career as a white ball international.

“It’s not necessarily what we hope (that Smith just focuses on Test cricket). That’s probably for Steve to answer, what his goals and challenges are going forward and what he wants to achieve in the game,” Bailey said.

“I still think he’s got an enormous amount of good cricket left ahead of him. Across what formats? I think that’s as much up to him to decide where he wants to go with his cricket going forward.

Steve Smith was left out of the Australian team. Picture: Getty Images

Australian cricketers Aaron Finch, Steve Smith and George Bailey at the New York Mets batting practice

“I know he still loves playing T20 cricket. I know he’s going to play some MLC (Major League Cricket) later this year (in the USA, for Washington).

“So that’s still an itch he’d like to scratch.

“Clearly we’ve (Australia) had a handful of players, probably more than some other countries, that have been multi-format for a long period of time, and it’s natural that some of those will start to drop off.”

Bailey said the decision to leave Smith out of the World Cup 15 was not easy, but ultimately selectors felt they had enough depth at the top of the order, and Cameron Green provided more versatility.

“Steve, he’s one that was on an extended list and was in the conversations,” Bailey said.

“Again, he’s one who I think his best T20 work of late has come at the top of the order and at the moment we see that top order being really settled.”

Originally published as Steve Smith set to be a face of the T20 World Cup in the USA