Steve Smith calls David Warner’s captaincy life ban ‘fundamentally wrong’

Steve Smith believes Cricket Australia’s decision to ban David Warner from captaining any form of cricket for life is having real-time consequences for his teammate.

Steve Smith has declared David Warner’s lifetime leadership ban “is just fundamentally wrong”, expressing sympathy that he is allowed to captain while his long-term teammate cannot.

Now free to act as stand-in skipper for Australia after serving a two-year leadership ban for his role in the Sandpapergate scandal, Smith’s belief that Warner has suffered an injustice at the hands of Cricket Australia by never having the opportunity to lead again at any level of cricket is hugely significant.

Australia’s inevitable 2-0 pasting of the West Indies – dismantled for 77, their lowest ever score down under – was overshadowed by the explosion of Warner pulling out of the process to review his ban on the eve of the Test.

Smith feels the saga being allowed to play out over the World Cup and Test series has affected the focus of Warner, who is now under pressure to score runs in the heavy-duty series starting against South Africa on Saturday.

“From my point of view, banning someone for life from a leadership (position) is just fundamentally wrong,” said Smith after Australia’s record 419-run win, the Windies’ heaviest defeat by runs in their ounce proud history.

“David’s served his time like I did and for us, we know he’s a leader around the group and on and off the field he’s doing a tremendous job.

David Warner and Steve Smith shake hands during the second Test in Adelaide. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty

“It’s been a difficult one for him. It’s been a difficult week and David said himself he’s done and dusted and he wants to move on and get on with it.

“I’d say it’s been more of a distraction for Davey (than the team), no doubt. Going through that himself.

“But he’s got the full support of everyone in the group. He’s been amazing for a while now and he’s a leader like I said, on and off the field. … hopefully he can have a really big series for us against South Africa with the bat.”

Selectors have big decisions to make about the bowling attack they’ll pick to go head-to-head with South Africa’s cartel of 150km/h machines, after Michael Neser took 3-22 in response to Scott Boland’s scintillating 3-16 in the final innings in Adelaide.

Pat Cummins will bowl in the nets on Monday in a bid to prove his fitness to return from a quad strain and presuming the captain does get up, it means magic man Boland and Queensland local Neser will be in a shootout to play at the Gabba.

David Warner is desperate for runs. Picture: Matt King/Getty

Boland is the heavy favourite, but Australia’s blossoming fast bowling depth is causing headaches of a good kind.

Causing more concern is the form of Warner, who averaged 25.5 across the series and 28 over the last two years.

Smith has served as Warner’s run-scoring partner in crime for their parallel careers and warned against writing off who he says is arguably Australia’s greatest ever opening batsman.

“Davey is a once in a generational player. He’s arguably the best ever opener for Australia and the way he’s able to put pressure on bowlers from the outset helps everyone down the order as well,” said Smith.

“He’s been an incredible player for a long period of time. His record suggests that and there’s no reason why he can’t have a big series for us this week coming up as well.

“He’s batting nicely. Fingers crossed he can have a bit of luck. He hasn’t had a great deal of luck lately either. It seems like every time he gets an inside edge it goes onto the stumps and sometimes in this game, when you’re scoring runs you need some luck. Hopefully that turns for him.

“For me, it’s in his body language, the way he goes out and is really positive and just in a good frame of mind. I’ve watched him in the nets, he’s in a good frame of mind and I thought particularly (on Saturday) you could see he was in a really good frame of mind.

“The way his feet were moving, he was really sharp and he’s batting well. There’s no real concerns there.”

Smith admits South Africa is the one country in world cricket where he has largely struggled to assert his dominance.

His average of 41.53 with only one hundred is his lowest output against a major international Test team, with the exception of Bangladesh, who he has only played twice.

Smith said he’s looking forward to facing a South African team without the ugly emotional baggage both teams were carrying around in 2018, and doesn’t believe a soft series against the West Indies will adversely impact Australia’s preparation.

“I think the cricket we’ve played over the last four and a half years we’ve played in the right way,” said Smith.

“We’ve been hard and played in the right spirit. So for us nothing changes. We’re just going to continue to go about our business and hopefully continue playing really good, entertaining cricket.”

Originally published as Steve Smith calls David Warner’s captaincy life ban ‘fundamentally wrong’