STEVE Smith has copped a whack from two former Australian Test players over his roasting of axed one-day star Glenn Maxwell — with some suggestion the Australian skipper has broken a secret team code by going public with his criticisms of the maligned star.

Maxwell was the major omission when Australia named a 14-man ODI squad on Wednesday, and Smith was open in discussing what the Victorian needed to improve to work his way back in — suggesting he needed to “train smarter”, “keep his head switched on” and improve his consistency.

Former Test spinner Gavin Robertson and fast bowler Brendon Julian agreed Smith was out of line in questioning Maxwell — with Robertson saying it went against the Australian team code of the past, while Julian suggested Maxwell could easily throw his hands in the air and pledge the remainder of his career to the riches of Twenty20 cricket.

“(Australia coach) Darren Lehmann came through under (former captains Mark) Taylor and (Steve) Waugh, and the rule was you criticise in private and you would praise in public,” Robertson told Fox Sports News on Thursday.

“If we were talking to Steve Smith now I’d say ‘you’ve obviously changed that rule’. That’s not how it works anymore.”

Julian noted that the timing of the axing and Smith’s cricitism seemed odd given we’re only a little over a month removed from Maxwell hitting a career-best 278 against New Zealand.

“That’s been a tough one for Maxwell to take,” added Julian, who was in Bangladesh in his role as a Fox Sports commentator during Maxwell’s most recent Test stint.

“He could be sitting back saying ‘hang on, the way I was training?’ - I thought he did a pretty good job in Bangladesh.

“I was over there in Bangladesh, he trained well, he played well, he was in the Test side.

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“He could be a guy that could just go, ‘You know what, I’m done with Test cricket, I don’t want to play any more Shield cricket, I’m going to go on the T20 circuit, I can’t even get in the one-day squad’ — he hasn’t done too many things wrong.

“I don’t like the idea of the Australian captain publicly saying those things about any player.

“They’re obviously saying it to get the best of him but hang on, he scored a 200-odd and 100-odd (96 vs Western Australia) in Shield cricket, he’s done everything he had to do.

“There’s an issue there but I’d want (coach Darren) Lehmann and I’d want Steve Smith to go up to him and talk to him privately.”

When pressed on whether Maxwell should pick up the phone and call Smith or Lehmann, Julian countered: “I think he’s done that. There’s no doubt the selectors would’ve rung him and said ‘hey mate, we haven’t picked you’ and he would’ve just put the phone straight down and said ‘mate I don’t want to hear it’.

“It’s a pretty tight group and I’d rather Steve Smith told him privately and not voice that publicly.

“But they’re obviously trying to get something out of him but he could be the guy that says ‘I’m done — I’ll just play Twenty20 cricket then, I can’t even get in the side’.”

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Steve Smith could’ve been tempted away from Australia at a young age. Source: News Limited

AS he establishes himself as the finest batsman since Bradman, the fact that Steve Smith could have played for England had he chosen to becomes all the more remarkable.

In a sliding doors moment 10 years ago, Australia’s now all-conquering batsman played one game for the Kent 2nd XI and was offered a contract with Surrey.

By virtue of his mother’s birth in the UK, accepting the county’s lucrative deal could have led to an English debut.

Had it eventuated, Smith would have likely been at the SCG for this Test, but wearing a blue cap and not a baggy green one.

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Despite the temptation, Smith never seriously considered squashing his dream of playing for the Aussies.

“I never had ambitions to play for England as such — I always wanted to play for Australia,” Smith said.

“At 18 years of age, it sounded like quite a fair amount of money to me. But I always knew I wanted to come back and play for NSW and for Australia and do my best there.

“It was a decision I had to make at the time, and I think I chose the right one.”

Smith has played T20 cricket for Worcestershire as an overseas player and conceded he has ambitions to one day make a mark on the county circuit.

But for now, he has is focus completely on making more runs against the very country that attempted to lure him as a teenager.

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Steve Smith insists it’s too early to speculate about Cameron Bancroft and Usman Khawaja’s hopes of touring South Africa.

Bancroft and Khawaja will both be desperate to post a big score in the fifth Ashes Test that starts on Thursday, coming under increasing scrutiny in the media.

Bancroft scored an unbeaten 82 on Test debut at the Gabba, calmly completing a 10-wicket win for Australia in the Ashes opener. The 25-year-old has since failed to reach 30.

Khawaja has made two half-centuries and a handful of starts this series. Smith suggested it’d be wrong to say either batsman was under pressure to keep their spot in the XI.

“Not sure. It’s too early to say that,” skipper Smith said on Test eve. “They probably haven’t had the strongest of summers that they would have liked. “Watching them play, I think they’re batting well.

“It’ll be great if they could get a score in this match and help us win this Test.”

Australia’s touring party for a four-Test series in South Africa is expected to be picked before the next Sheffield Shield round.

It means Joe Burns and other Test aspirants may struggle to mount a compelling case they deserve selection ahead of Khawaja or Bancroft.

“South Africa is still a fair way away, lots can happen between now and then. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Smith said.

Bancroft noted earlier this week that “other people out there in the world can do all that worrying for me, life is too short to worry”.

Khawaja laughed off suggestions he was out of form last week in Melbourne, saying it was a “bit bizarre” he was criticised for a lack of fluency on a slow MCG pitch.

“It’s Test match cricket, sometimes you’re not going to score at a free-flowing rate. It doesn’t mean my intent wasn’t there,” he said.

Crowds line up for Day 1 of the 5th Ashes Test. Source: News Corp Australia

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING THE SCG TEST

THERE will be close to 46,000 in attendance at the Sydney Cricket Ground today for the fifth and final Ashes Test of the summer — but they won’t be the only ones watching.

As the New Zealand Herald reports, there will be increased security at the ground... but not in the traditional sense.

There will be 800 facial recognition cameras monitoring all the activity around the ground, installed at a cost of $3.8 million to monitor every face from 1.5km away and “even zero in on unattended bags”.

The new measures have been introduced following terror attacks across the world in recent years, including at sporting and music events such as an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester last May.

“This is the first time the cameras have been used at a major sporting event and the New Year’s Sydney Test is the city’s biggest sporting event of the year,” a cricket ground spokesman was quoted as saying.