Christopher Martin-Jenkins: Smith makes foolish move

Smith makes foolish move

Comment by Christopher Martin-Jenkins

YOU do not have to hold a brief for Chris Lewis to believe that A C Smith`s request to Surrey is peculiar, utterly superfluous and rather ridiculous. Lewis let himself and England down. He has been dropped from this week`s one-day internationals and that is surely sufficient punishment. I hope Surrey`s management will tell the Board`s chief executive to mind his own business.

Lewis has had it spelt out in capital letters by messrs Illingworth, Lloyd and Atherton that turning up very late for an England match for the second time in the season was not good enough. To underline the message in red, as Smith`s intervention has, is tantamount to kicking a man when he is down.

Surrey, I understand, are perfectly happy with the attitude and performances of Lewis on their behalf this season. There would be neither logic nor justice in dropping him from the side for failing on England`s behalf. The humane reaction, surely, is to hope that he will quickly put his mistake behind him by playing effectively for Surrey in their championship match against Warwickshire on Thursday.

On matters where the Test and County Cricket Board executives should be decisive they procrastinate and prevaricate, yet when, as in this case, the England management have made their own strong decision, they suddenly find the same executives jumping on the bandwagon to no sensible purpose.

The impression one has that they often intervene on the wrong issues has been strengthened by the revelation that one of Smith`s senior staff, Tony Brown, discouraged Ray Illingworth from making his peace with Devon Malcolm before judgment was made by the Board on Malcolm`s newspaper articles. Talk about making a drama out of a crisis.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telgraph.co.uk/)