Mark Taylor, former Australian skipper is not ruling out Steve Smith’s return as national Test team’s captain nearly 3 years after the occurrence of the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.
Steve Smith was banned from captaincy for two years by Cricket Australia after the ball-tampering scandal in 2018. Mark Taylor admits that Steve Smith’s chances diminish the longer Tim Paine remains in the role.
Mark Taylor: Steve Smith’s Chances Diminish If Tim Paine Plays Longer
Former Australia captain Mark Taylor said that he would not rule out a return for former skipper Steve Smith in the leadership role. Pertinently, Smith was dumped from the role in the wake of the infamous South African tour in 2018 where he along with David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were subsequently banned for allegations of ball-tampering.
However, Mark Taylor admits that Steve Smith’s chances diminish the longer Tim Paine remains in the role.
In Steve Smith’s absence, Australia gave Aaron Finch the responsibility to lead the limited-overs teams while Tim Paine was assigned the captaincy for the Test. Aaron Finch led Australia to an ODI series win in India, while under Tim Paine’s captaincy, Australia retained the Ashes last year.
“I think the thing that will potentially go against him is how long Tim Paine will play for,” Mark Taylor said. “If he’s still there at 37, 38, then it might be too late for Steve. Conversely, if in the next year or so Tim’s form [drops] or he gives it away, I’d like to think Steve would be considered.”
In March 2018, Steve Smith was widely criticized for overseeing ball-tampering incident in the third Test against South Africa, during which he stood down from captaincy and was subsequently replaced by Tim Paine.
Following an investigation by CA, he was banned from all international and domestic cricket in Australia for one year starting from 29 March 2018, and also from consideration for any leadership role for an additional year.
Mark Taylor: Steve Smith Made Mistakes Which Would Not Happen Again And The Possibility Of Him Regaining Captaincy Isn’t Ruled Out Entirely
The question of whether Steve Smith will regain the captaincy of the Test team continues to exist at Australian cricket nearly three years after the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.
“Yes, some mistakes were made a couple of years ago, I still feel to the day he was very wary of the mistakes he made and I don’t think it would happen again. I wouldn’t rule him out of captaining Australia in the future,” Taylor added.
“I think he’s done a very good job, don’t get me wrong, but I also think he took over at such a hard time and the cricket side was at such a low there was a lot of room for improvement, put it that way.
“There’s no doubt he was made captain because he was a senior cricketer in Australian cricket, with his head screwed on right, and therefore he was the right man for the job at the right time,” Mark Taylor concluded.
After former Australian captain, Steve Smith admitted to being involved in a ball-tampering incident during the third test against South Africa in March 2018, he and vice-captain David Warner stood down from their leadership roles in the middle of the match.
Tim Paine was announced as the interim captain for the final two days of the match, but only one was required to complete the match.