CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Following a soap operatic November news cycle, The Australian cricket side reshuffle is complete.
Steve Smith, who captained Australia for 34 Tests until the fateful ball-tampering scandal is now the vice captain to Pat Cummins.
Smudge will likely assume more responsibility than past vice-captains given the fact that the selectors have thrown the side into uncharted territory with their unorthodox decision to appoint a fast bowler as skipper.
Cummins anticipated he would be “leaning on [Smith] hugely” in terms of tactics, with CA also confirming he would take over in the event Cummins missed a match.
Steve Smith has not been publicly re-considered as captain by any selectors, teammates or media pundits since the scandal – as the fall-out of ‘sandpapergate’ still permeates through the culture of the team almost 5 years later.
At the time, Captian Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner were found to be involved and, alongside bowler Cameron Bancroft, received unprecedented sanctions from Cricket Australia.
Although he was found not to have been directly involved, Australia’s coach, Darren Lehmann, also had to fall on his sword and stepped down from his role. Smith was replaced by Tim Paine as captain in all formats before Aaron Finch took over from Paine in ODIs and T20Is.
And this was how things remained, until about two weeks ago when Tim Paine stood down from the captain of the test side after a media furore surrounding his decision to send photos of his erect phallus to someone who is not his wife.
A new captain has been instated, and it is not Steve Smith, who is back putting on clinics on the Australian cricket test side, because Steve Smith cannot be captain again.
However, Pat Cummins, the 47th men’s Test skipper, was quick to praise the leadership of Smudge, with whom he has been in regular contact.
Steve Smith had similarly kind things to say about his new captain, as he rushed to dismiss any comparisons to the iconic Mafia archetype ‘Junior Soprano’.
In the hit HBO TV series The Sopranos, the character of ‘Uncle June’ is recognised as the ‘shot caller’ of the New Jersey mafia outfit – who the more-strategic figures within the Soprano family have appointed as ‘boss’ as a decoy to law enforcement, tricking even Junior Soprano himself into thinking he was in charge of the organisation.
“Absolutely not” Smudge told the media today.
“Pat is definitely not a Junior Soprano. He is in control here”
And I am definitely not a Tony Soprano secretly running things, I’m merely offering advice”
“I’m more of a Paulie. I talk too much and annoy everyone. But also I’m very quick to pull a trigger and make a mess of the opponents if I need to”
“Warner is Silvio too, by the way. He’s my most loyal consigliere, old Davey”
