Steve Smith Not Australia’s Only Captaincy Candidate, Many Youngsters Coming Through: CA Chairman Eddings

Cricket Australia has confirmed that they are not considering Steve Smith as the only candidate for the captaincy of the Australian cricket team.

The 36-year-old, Tim Paine has done a fantastic job after getting the work following Smith’s 12 months ban from international cricket. In addition, Smith was also handed a 2-year captaincy ban for his role in the infamous ball-tampering incident in 2018. The captaincy ban ended in March this year.

While we have seen a number of cricket experts and analysts backing Steve Smith for the captaincy role in Australia cricket team, Cricket Australia cleared their point by saying that they are not struck with Steve Smith only.

The Chairman of Cricket Australia, Earl Eddings said that Steve Smith was definitely very good captain during his tenure but the management is not stuck only to his name when it comes to selecting the future captain of the Test and limited-overs team.

“First of all we’ve got three great captains in Meg, Aaron and Tim, We’ve got some great young leaders coming through. So it’s not just about should Steve takes over, it’s about what’s best overall. Steve’s a great young man and he was a good captain when he was there. Like any succession, there’s planning in place. Have we sat down as a board specifically to discuss the next captain? No we haven’t.

Eddings further added that a number of players as vice-captain were being tried to better find the future leaders of Australian cricket.

“But I think over a period of time we’ve given a range of people options to be vice-captain, Matthew Wade was already vice-captain, so we’re seeing that and it gives us an opportunity to look at the future leaders of Australian cricket. We’ll be guided by the recommendations of the selection panel, they always come back to our board at the right time with their recommendation, and we’ll go through it in detail when they do that,” Eddings told ESPNcricinfo.

However, as of now, the limited-overs captain of Australia, Aaron Finch and Test captain Tim Paine are doing a great job. Both of them have already hinted of their wish to continue for some time in their position.

Tim Paine has also improved his game in the last few matches, scoring 342 runs at 42.75 and a strike rate of 52.29 in eight matches since the end of England versus Australia Headingley Test in 2019, He had also claimed 39 catches and two stumpings in that time.