Steve Smith and David Warner in firing line but there’s nothing new about crowds booing cricketers

Crowds have booed players for reasons great and small for a long time. Australian cricketers Steve Smith and David Warner will cop their fair share but it will not distract them from the task at hand.

Steve Smith was booed on the way to a century against England and all the way from the ground after it. David Warner was similarly treated on his way to a man of the match award at Bristol County Ground in Australia’s successful opening match of the World Cup.

All indications are the pair will be giving crowds the opportunity to yell themselves hoarse over the next four month as both look determined to spend as much time as possible in the middle.

Warner admitted there had been “nerves” coming back into the camp and preparing for his return to the game, but they should be settled now. He and Smith have fitted in easily. They have been accepted back into the fold and are focused on the task at hand.

The grey noise of supporters has had little impact on their first appearances in an Australian side. The embrace of their teammates and the confirmation that their cricketing talents have not wilted during their 12-month ban has far outweighed anything on offer from the other side of the fence. No matter how loud, or angry, or persistent it is.

Mostly, however, the reaction has been more comic than contemptuous. A pantomime they were prepared for; a confected outrage that we have come to expect from opposition crowds.

Ricky Ponting found himself besieged by adoring fans at the end of the Australian’s match. In Bristol as an assistant coach to Justin Langer he leaned over the balcony as fans flung their caps and shirts and what-have-you up to him to be signed.

They chanted his name “Ricky, Ricky, Ricky” and carried on as if he was the saviour among them.

Australia's David Warner (right) and Australia's Steve Smith received a hostile reception from the Bristol crowd.

AUSSIES’ WORLD CUP OPENER: THINGS WE LEARNED

SANDPAPER SLEDGE: WARNER ENJOYS LAST LAUGH

Things have changed. The former Australian captain was booed relentlessly during the 2009 Ashes. Jeered at Lord’s even. They put on extra security at Headingley lest it get out of hand and ECB chair Giles Clarke made a plea in the Test program for fans to respect the opposition captain.

It was silly, essentially harmless and showed little demonstrative effect on his performance, just as the carry-on in Southampton and Bristol has with Warner and Smith.

Ponting is one of the most in demand commentators in the UK at times like these. When next on these shores he will be analysing the games for Sky in the Ashes. The respect for his achievements have overcome. And, if the crowds are booing him from the couch he can’t hear them.

There is an inherent humour in the carry on directed at Warner and Smith as there was with Ponting.

It is difficult to take offence at the sight of a couple dressed as sandpaper, rubbing themselves with a cardboard cut out a Kookaburra ball while dancing on a balcony overlooking the ground. You’d be thin skinned to be rubbed up the wrong way by such silliness.

Crowds have booed players for reasons great and small for a long time. Stuart Broad laughed off the abuse when one Australian newspaper called him a “smug Pommy cheat” in the 2013 Ashes. The bowler carried the offending tabloid into a press conference after tearing through Australia’s top order that day. He, like Ponting before him, was happy to play the villain. Only failure on the field could hurt them.

When Warner found himself fielding at the long boundary children sought his autograph and he obliged. Smith too has been similarly set upon. Both have found themselves posing for photographs with fans in England.

The pair know they made a mistake and have paid a price for it, but have proved on return that they are elite competitors who will not be distracted from the task.

It is not as if they had, like Adam Goodes, become a lightning rod for historic darkness. It is not a reminder that there role in society is to be seen but not heard, not a slap to the face for presuming you could meet the eye of people who had long held themselves superior. Goodes was told to hold his tongue and remember his place, in his case even children mimicked the stupidity of their elders.

Warner’s innings at Bristol was lumpy. His feet were not moving. The only time he found the middle in the early parts of the innings was when a free hit from a no ball allowed him to free his mind to slog one straight back past the bowler for four. On a ground where you would expect him to belt boundaries at will he made his way unsteadily.

David Warner didn’t move his feet in his first outing but his technique will improve.

It was a smart innings. Great batsmen can grind out an innings even when the going is hard. Aaron Finch opened his account with a pair of powerful fours in the first over from Mujeeb Ul Raman. His striking unsettled Afghanistan who had hoped the tactic would do the same to Australia.

Finch had not been in the greatest of form in the past 12 months and had only begun to find his feet in recent times, but the innings in Bristol will serve him well.

He struck six fours and four sixes, brought up his half century from 40 deliveries and hit the ball as cleanly as he had at any time in his career.

Warner displayed his maturity by not attempting to go with the captain. Lesser players may have been frustrated by the inability to find their groove and struck out, but he suppressed his ego and anxieties and worked within the limitations of his current form.

He knows what’s wrong and he is working on fixing it.

“Playing T20 cricket for the last 14 months hasn’t really moved my feet at all, so to get back into the rhythm out there and start moving in the right direction, getting my head over the ball was great,” he said as the crowd jeered during the man of the match presentation.

Smith on the other hand has looked almost imperious in practice. A fine intercept and throw from Smith in the field had ended the innings of Afghanistan’s best batsman, Mohammad Nabi and a sharp catch had accounted for Rahman Shah. Both efforts will give him further confidence following an elbow operation.

To see him dismissed on the penultimate ball of the day for just 18 was a surprise to those who have watched him build to his first official match back in Australian colours and he was furious with himself for the soft dismissal when the game was all but concluded.

Warner and Smith are too singularly focused on returning to their best to be distracted by the behaviour of crowds. The only thing that will hurt them now is not giving spectators more opportunity to indulge.

Australia's Steve Smith leaves the crease after losing his wicket for 18.