Steve Smith made an unexpected dig at former England spinner Monty Panesar during his brief return as Australia’s Ashes captain. The former England cricketer had urged travelling fans and the media to target Smith for his role in the ‘Sandpapergate’ ball-tampering controversy from seven years ago, for which the ace batter has already served a sentence.
Panesar urged that Smith be made to feel guilty for filling in for Pat Cummins as skipper. Rather than dismissing the statements, Smith took an unconventional approach during his press conference on the eve of the first Test in Perth. He attempted to undercut Panesar’s credibility by referring to the former cricketer’s notoriously error-filled performance on Celebrity Mastermind in 2019, highlighting a number of gaffes Panesar made on the show.
“I’m going to go off topic here, who in the room has seen Mastermind, and Monty Panesar on that? Any of you? Those of you that have will understand where I’m coming from. If you haven’t, do yourself a favour because it is pretty comical. Anyone that believes that Athens is in Germany, that’s a start, or that Oliver Twist is a season of the year and America is a city. It doesn’t really bother me, those comments. That’s as far as I’ll go with that one,” said Smith as quoted by Independent.
Check the video of the Steve Smith’s press conference here
Iconic from Steve Smith. 😂 pic.twitter.com/jyvPcoSH5L
— CODE Cricket (@codecricketau) November 20, 2025
India
