No rift between Australia’s two best batsmen as David Warner, Steve Smith prepare to clash
IT’S the biggest showdown Sydney grade cricket has ever seen, with Australia’s suspended leadership duo of Steve Smith and David Warner facing off in a spicy clash.
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IF ever Australian cricket needed at least one partnership to last a while, now’s the time.
With the national team struggling and Cricket Australia falling apart, all eyes will be on Steve Smith and David Warner when they face each other at Coogee Oval today.
It may just be a limited-overs match between Warner’s Randwick-Petersham and Smith’s Sutherland, but it could be the most important game so far this summer.
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Regardless of whether their 12 month bans are reduced, it’s clear Australian cricket needs them back as soon as they’re allowed, in form and getting along, and today is the day to tick both those boxes.
“I think they know they made a real big error in judgment but they’ve paid for it and they’re still paying for it,” Randwick-Petersham club president Mike Whitney told The Saturday Telegraph.
“David’s really pulled his head in. He knows he has to reconnect with the public and the kids and all the players and that’s exactly what he’s trying to do and he’s trying really hard to do it, which is wonderful.”
Publicly, Smith and Warner haven’t been seen together since playing a T20 tournament in Canada in July, fuelling speculation they’ve had a fallout.
But behind the scenes, they’ve been in regular weekly contact and getting along just fine, which could be the best news Justin Langer has heard in a while because he needs them both firing on all cylinders.
The rumours have been fuelled in part by the fact both men have effectively been gagged since their teary returns to Australia, saying nothing to traditional media and keeping well away from social media.
Even as the debate about their bans should be reduced heats up, they’ve both been conspicuously silent on the issue, and that won’t change today, although their pre and post game handshakes could be the only good news cricket pictures this weekend
“I would presume they will see each other and they will shake hands and have a (private) chat,” Whitney said.
“They've obviously go back a long way and have played a lot of cricket together.
“I’ve been in the dressing room in first grade a couple of times this year and heard him (Warner) regaling stories of playing against different players and he’ll describe it like a professor, what he’s trying to or and how he tries to negate it, but I haven’t heard him mention Cape Town, or South Africa or the ban once.
“I think he prefers not to talk about that at the moment, he just wants to just to take this time off.”
If the PR battle counts for anything, both men are already winning. Their return to district cricket has provided a huge boost to the grade competition and both Smith and Warner have almost busted their wrists signing so many autographs.
Their form’s not bad either. Smith has a top score of 85 so far while Warner has blasted two hundreds in three knocks to average 109.67.
And while Whitney thinks it’s been a good thing for Warner and Smith to get back to grade cricket, and he’s expecting a huge crowd today, he’s adamant all of the banned players should have their suspensions immediately and be back playing for Australia sooner rather than later.
“Right from the start I thought the 12 month bans were just way over the top in light of what happened to other players who got done for ball tampering,” Whitney said.
“It was an incredible knee jerk reaction from what was at the time a pious Cricket Australia.
“But absolutely, I think they’ve done their time now.
“But does David want to get back? Yeah, sure, of course he does.
“He's still got plenty of miles left in his legs and he’s one of the most devastating players anybody seen since the second world war. That’s his love and that’s how he keep his family fed.”
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Originally published as No rift between Australia’s two best batsmen as David Warner, Steve Smith prepare to clash
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