The Steve Smith NB situation is strange. Stokes gets dropped immediately by NB for reasons that they said didn't reflect the brand's values, etc.
Smith is found guilty and admits to ball tampering and he's still using their gear. Warner gets dropped by Gray Nics. Very mixed messages and, it seems, standards from NB...
I've followed this pretty closely since it broke, and have read almost all i can.
The official position is that Steve Smith looked over to see Bancroft and Warner unto something and Smith turned a 'i don't want to know what you guys are up to' blind eye. Subsequently, the end of day press conference he tried to take the focus away from the junior guy in the team, coming up with a 'story' that it was 'planned by the leadership group' of the team.
Warner wasn't instantly dropped by GN and as other statements have made, looks like his Spartan deal was in the mix already and is about the same time a lot of players change sponsors. Clarke switched to Spartan after being support by Slazenger for his early career. Morgan went to Spartan (from Slazenger), then to SF. Root left GM for NB. It's not uncommon now for players to leave the brands they were using to get big for significantly larger coin.
As for the mixed message from NB, I think they are looking at a long term investment.
'Steve Smith, the guy that feel defending his team (rightly or wrongly), broken as a person and a cricketer, went back to grass roots, built himself up again and re concurred the test world'. Sells a pretty big story and having a NB logo in all the photos to go with it.
Not sure they would have got the same thing regarding Stokes.
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Topic: Dave Warner - Spartan (Read 17605 times)