Australian cricket great Ian Healy says he expects Steve Smith at some stage to step in for newly appointed Test captain Pat Cummins, while also suggesting that Cricket Australia’s hiring process was against his personal “theory”.
Cummins last week became the 47th man to lead the Australian Test side, taking over from Tim Paine, who resigned due to a sexting scandal. He’ll become the first pace bowler to lead Australia since Ray Lindwall in 1956.
The 28-year-old’s unveiling was announced alongside former skipper Smith, who was named vice-captain, in which he officially returns to a leadership role following his 18-month ban after the infamous 2018 ball-tampering saga.
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Healy said he wouldn’t be surprised to see Cummins, who is coming off Australia’s T20 World Cup campaign, require a rest at some stage during the upcoming Ashes series which will open the door for Smith to take over.
“I’m quite excited for Pat and to see how he goes,” Healy told Nine News.
“I think he has the brain for it, he has the capacity to do it and he certainly has the respect of the team and the cricket world.
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“I don’t envision it will be that long-term because his workloads are incredible right now.
“He’s going to need some resting at some stage. There might be some intermittent breaks in his captaincy.
“But let’s see how it goes, there might not be any breaks.”
Healy addressed Smith’s return to the leadership group and questioned why Cricket Australia didn’t opt to instead “blood” a new player into the vice-captaincy position.
“It’s probably one in four people who don’t think Steve Smith should be there,” he added.
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“Cricket Australia has said they will use him (Smith) as captain if we need him.
“I don’t subscribe to that theory – I don’t subscribe to the theory that your vice-captain becomes your captain.
“I would’ve left Steve Smith out to the side and blood a new vice-captain and get them ready.
“If Pat does need a rest, Steve comes in and captains then.”
The former wicketkeeper-batsman said his theory of keeping the vice-captain in his role is a scenario that he has long presented, even when he was attempting to land the job during his Test career which spanned from 1988-1999.
“They’ve never understood my theory on that, even when I was interviewing to be the captain/vice-captain,” he said.
“I said that I think I should just be the vice-captain and if (captain at the time) Mark Taylor gets injured, you put Steve Waugh over the top of me.
“Keep the vice-captain position the way it is.
“I haven’t got a problem with Steve Smith leading our country again, he’s paid a heavy price for being a lazy captain.
“He will learn from those experiences and he will be a much harder, more diligent and more engaged captain this time.”
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