Swann says Aussies should take their punishment: They should feel lucky they got a year

HUW TURBERVILL: Graeme Swann has taken time out from the tango to tangle again with his old sparring partners, the Australians

Graeme Swann has taken time out from the tango to tangle again with his old sparring partners, the Australians.

The former England off-spinner has survived to the last half-dozen of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing, and is hoping to follow in the footsteps of previous champions Mark Ramprakash and Darren Gough.

Reacting to the news that the year-long bans for Steve Smith and David Warner are to be maintained, Swann told The Cricketer: “The Australian players’ association shouldn’t have appealed. Take your punishment. Admit you were hideously in the wrong. Admit the verbiage that ‘there was a line that we didn’t cross’ (which left everybody wide-eyed in disbelief at their audacity) was wrong.

^{The former England spinner says ACA shouldn’t have appealed}

“It tells me they have not really learnt from it, to be honest. When Australia’s prime minister has to interject... and the whole nation is saying they are disgusted... it is time to take stock and apologise for everyone they have slandered.

“If they choose to argue the toss rather than have a decent moral code for your national sport, it is a shame. A year is not a long ban. They used sandpaper. Every team I played in raised the seam and so on, but to take sandpaper on the pitch and be caught by 30 cameras...

"They should feel lucky they got a year. I have never known a team take a foreign object on to the field. That is out of the Naked Gun movies. Kudos to Australian cricket for rejecting the appeal, and Tim Payne is a good leader and good bloke.”

Swann is delighted with England’s Test victory in Sri Lanka – but said cautiously: “They have had an excellent tour, although I would inject a spot of realism in this by saying this is not a team that contains Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene – if it had been, that second Test would have resulted in a heavy defeat for England. But it’s moving forward.

^{"Joe Root needs to get a bit tougher on him"}

“One thing Moeen Ali has to realise he’s a Test spin bowler. He’s not a Test No.3. He’s not a Test back-up spinner, or whatever label he wants. He’s an out-and-out Test off-spinner, the best England have. If he starts believing that, he stops being a liability in the team by needing that safety blanket of being a second spinner and this England team can move forward. He’s a lovely lad, great to have around the team, but one of the reasons they are mercurial is because they pander to him. Joe Root needs to get a bit tougher on him, and say ‘come on, this is it. You’re our main spinner, live with that’. It’s important to get that message across ahead of the Ashes, 1000 per cent.

“England have played spin OK this trip, Joe has played well, but I am not convinced by anyone else. I like Jack Leach. He has taken wickets quietly and unassumingly for Somerset for years. He missed out before. There was a rumour he was not taken on the tour to Bangladesh in 2016/17 because of his action. If that was the case and he was playing first-class cricket with that, that was a disgrace. I think it was because England still thought they were a good team against spin because they got 400 three times in India (that same winter), but they didn’t mention they were bowled out for 100 each time in the second innings.

“They had the strange idea that Leach only took wickets when it was turning at Taunton – but it was going to spin in Bangladesh! He bowled nicely in New Zealand without setting the world alight, but in Sri Lanka he has had a bit more about him – more revs and dip.

Swann was attending at an event announcing the recruitment of 2,000 women coaches from Britain’s South Asian community

“I would say if the wicket is turning I would play two spinners against Australia because they don’t play spin well when it’s turning. Best chance still is if the ball swings, though. Steve Smith will struggle against Jimmy Anderson if it does. Australia are still the best team in the world when the wicket is flat."

On his Strictly experiences, he said: “When you are being watched by 12m people on terrestrial and people are starting to recognise you, you realise cricket is becoming a minority sport. It needs exposure to the masses. I don’t think that is the case anymore, but I think it is trying to take care of the problem it has created for itself.

“The first time I did Strictly, I got out of bed on the Sunday to go to the Co-op in shorts and a cap, and I was stopped by three different families – previously I’d only be recognised by the old boy who works behind the Lottery till who is a Notts member.”

Swann was speaking at an event in Leicester announcing the recruitment of 2,000 women coaches from Britain’s South Asian community, using £1.2m of funding from the National Lottery, awarded by Sport England. The hope is that 15,000 new female players can be found. It comes six months after the ECB launched their South Asian action plan.

“England’s women are in the world T20 and are the world champions in 50-over, so this is a great time to recruit more coaches from the cricket-mad South Asian community.”