Former England spinner Monty Panesar has hit back at Steven Smith after the stand-in Australia skipper trolled him over his ‘pretty comical’ performance on the ‘Mastermind’ quiz show six years ago. Panser said that his mistakes were a lack of general knowledge, which is ‘better than being a cheat’.

Panesar began the spat when, in a recent interview with a gambling platform, he urged the England team traveling for the 2025-26 Ashes to sledge and make Smith feel ‘guilty’ about Sandpapergate. Smith seemingly came prepared for that question in his press conference on the eve of the first Test in Perth, and unfurled a two-minute monologue, listing several of Panesar’s errors in the quiz show.

“I’ve started, so I’ll finish," Panesar wrote for The Telegraph . “Those were the words I heard at

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