World Cup 2019: Moeen Ali hopeful of England fans being respectful towards Warner and Smith

The Australian duo of Steve Smith and David Warner will be making their international cricket comebacks in the yellow jersey in the upcoming ICC World Cup 2019, after serving their one-year bans due to involvement in the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa during the Cape Town Test in March 2018.

The bans cost Smith his Australian captaincy and Warner his vice-captaincy and neither can hold such positions again for one year. In addition to that, their image took a severe hit and they had to apologize to the Australian cricket fans and the public in general for bringing the game such a bad name. Even when the Kangaroos toured England for limited overs series after the scandal, the local fans didn’t let the visitors forget them with constant sandpaper jibes.

Moeen Ali, the English all-rounder, however, is hopeful of the fact that the England fans are good enough to not get personal with the two Australian players during their matches in the upcoming ICC event.

I really hope they (Warner and Smith) don’t get too much stick, says Moeen Ali

“I really hope they don’t get too much stick. I want them to enjoy the series. If you have to, keep it funny, not personal. We all make mistakes. We are human beings and we have feelings. I know deep down they are probably really good people. I just hope they get treated decently. I just want the cricket to be spoken about,” Moeen was quoted as saying by the Guardian.

Two days before, Australia head coach Justin Langer said that Warner and Smith may require sensitive monitoring and handling in coming time. “We’re going to have to care for them, we’re going to have to put an arm around them and make sure they’re going okay. There’s nothing they can do about that, they can’t control what people say, whether it’s in the crowd or social media,” Langer had been quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, both the players were part of Australia’s preparatory games against New Zealand XI and Smith made 22, 89* and 92*; while Warner didn’t impress much with scores of 39,0 and 2. But the fact that he won the Orange Cap in the IPL 2019 for scoring 692 runs for Sunrisers Hyderabad is big news for the Men in Yellow, who will start their campaign in World Cup against Afghanistan on June 1.

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