Justin Langer rubbishes Ian Chappell’s claims that Steve Smith ‘white-anted’ Tim Paine

Australian coach Justin Langer has come out in support of former Australian skipper Steve Smith for lending support in decision making on the field to current skipper Tim Paine. He has encouraged the fact of senior players like Smith and David Warner going ahead and having a word with the skipper. Both Smith and Warner were banned by Cricket Australia for the sandpaper saga before the duo came back into the side just ahead of 2019 World Cup.

During the second and final Test of the recently concluded Test series against Pakistan in Adelaide, Smith was spotted moving the Australian players for field change. This was not well taken by former Australian captain Ian Chappell who was unimpressed by Smith and accused him of “white-anting” the skipper on the field.

“We want to encourage all our guys to think like captains”: Justin Langer

“I thought that was a really strange comment the other day. It would be absolutely ridiculous of Tim Paine not to be looking like all captains do, and having a talk to Steve Smith, who has been a former captain of Australia, and David Warner and Travis Head, who is a captain of South Australia and a vice-captain, and a group of senior bowlers,” Langer opined.

“He’d be crazy. We want to encourage all our guys to think like captains and leaders on and off the field. So it’d be ridiculous for Painey not to be asking for it and then channelling the information as is required to whoever needs it. I was actually pleased to see our guys having a leadership impact on the ground,” Australian coach concluded.

“I tell you what I don’t like to see, Steve Smith is moving a few fieldsmen around. I hate to see that. England used to do it a bit, blokes other than the captain and I always felt it was white-anting the captain,” Chappell said on Macquarie Sports Radio during the Adelaide Test.

While Steve Smith’s leadership ban to expire in April, David Warner has a lifetime ban on leadership. The opener expressed his views of never appealing for lifting the ban.

Smith captained the Australian Test team before the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal in March 2018. Since Paine took over as skipper, Australia have won seven Tests in 16 matches.

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