Australia Test vice-captain Steven Smith will make his County Championship debut for Sussex in the next season of England’s prestigious domestic first-class competition. The development was doing the rounds since the last week or so and came to fruition after Sussex put out a press release around an hour ago.
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The move has provided a shot in the arm to Smith’s Ashes 2023 preparations as the star batter will get to acclimatize to the English conditions on the back of playing three red-ball matches before the start of the first Test on June 16.
All three of Smith’s County Championship 2023 matches will be played in May against Worcestershire, Leicestershire and Glamorgan. While the first two matches will be away fixtures for Sussex, the last one will be played at their home ground. Interestingly, Smith will lock horns with Australian teammate and good friend Marnus Labuschagne in the last match.
“I am particularly looking forward to working with the younger players in the squad and hoping I can provide some guidance to them,” Smith said in an official statement published on Sussex’s website.
Steve Smith Sussex signing vindicated by Michael Vaughan
Former England captain Michael Vaughan is intrigued by the prospect of one of the best Test batters of our times showing interest in County cricket. Vaughan took to social media platform Twitter to express approval of the deal.
Great signing for our game … Well done 👍👍 https://t.co/Qs2iqrBARy
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) January 19, 2023
In doing so, Vaughan, however, has disagreed with England Test captain Ben Stokes. It was during the tour of Pakistan last month that Stokes had spoke against overseas players getting any “game time” before a Test series in England.
Having said that, much like Vaughan, ECB’s (England Cricket Board) performance director Mo Bobat is a supporter of overseas cricketers’ presence in their domestic competition. Bobat, who laid emphasis on any good player’s presence “raising the standard of the tournament” in a conversation with ESPNcricinfo, realizes how the same would benefit both their young batters and bowlers.
Quite vocal on Twitter, Vaughan was publicly at odds with ECB tinkering with Ashes 2023 fixtures in order to provide a better window to The Hundred 2023. That being said, it is not once but twice that Vaughan has declared England to start the forthcoming Ashes as favourites. Readers must note that England haven’t won an Ashes series since 2015.
