Australia need Steve Smith back as a dominant batsman, but not as captain

Geoff Lemon, author of ‘Steve Smith’s Men’, tells the latest episode of Cricket Unfiltered why Smith should never captain Australia again, and revisits the sandpaper scandal one year on.

Steve Smith returned to IPL action this week for the Rajasthan Royals'. Picture: AFP

The author of one of the most detailed accounts of the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa, and the fallout from it, believes Australian cricket would be “doing itself a disservice” if Steve Smith was rushed back to the captaincy once his leadership ban ends next year.

LISTEN! The Cricket Unfiltered Ball Tampering Scandal Anniversary Special with Geoff Lemon

Smith and David Warner are free for national selection from this weekend and expected to be picked for both the World Cup and Ashes campaigns in England later this year.

However Geoff Lemon, whose book Steve Smith’s Men was this week nominated for the 2019 Cricket Society and MCC Book of the Year Award, insists Smith was never the right choice to lead Australia in the first place and would be better left to try and return to his other worldly form with the bat free from other responsibilities.

Speaking to the News Corp Cricket Unfiltered podcast, Lemon believes having Smith regain the captaincy in 2020 (he is barred from the role for another 12 months for his part in the controversy that turned Australian cricket inside out last year) “would be the sort of flinch response of the old conservative version of Cricket Australia,” but the wrong one.

“They would love him to because it would sort of make all the problems seem resolved. You could say everything is forgiven, everything is back to normal. Here’s Smithy, he’s a great batsman he’s the captain again.

“Your best player isn’t necessarily going to be your best captain. I think Tim Paine’s shown that.

“He’s a very, very good wicketkeeper but is sometimes a bit of a battler as a batsman. But he’s doing his job, and he’s being a leader. And that’s what the side needs.

“If they try and hurry Smith back as soon as his captaincy ban ends … I think Australian cricket will be doing itself a real disservice. Because you can’t just make your past mistakes go away by pretending they didn’t happen.

“It’s not a matter of punishing Smith. It’s a matter of saying he wasn’t the best choice to begin with, or he was a choice forced by circumstances. They have the option to make better choices now and to let him concentrate on playing and trying to become that dominate player again.

“Because he was so good it’s going to be so difficult for him to regain that level.”

Listen to the full interview on the player at the top of this article, or search Cricket Unfiltered wherever you get your podcasts from and subscribe today.