Former Australia captain Steve Waugh is expecting Steve Smith and David Warner will have a tough time by the South Africa crowd during their upcoming tour to South Africa. But he further said that the criticisms will only help them on to perform better.

Two years ago, in March 2018, during the third Test match against South Africa at Newlands in Cape Town, three of Australia players were involved in a ball-tampering scandal where Cameron Bancroft was caught by television cameras while trying to rough up one side of the ball with the sandpaper. After the nasty incident, the then captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner were handed a one-year suspension by Cricket Australia while Bancroft was banned for nine months for the same incident. And now, they will be playing for the very first time in South Africa since that infamous incident.

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“They will welcome it with open arms. There will be a few comments, and that’s all part of the game. They will expect it. They got that in England it didn’t work,” Sport24 quoted Steve Waugh as saying while he was speaking at the 2020 Laureus World Sports Awards on Sunday.

“Look at Steve Smith in that first Test match at Edgbaston. The crowds were booing him constantly and he got 140 in each innings. I would say to South African crowds ‘go for it’ because it will motivate these players and they’ll score runs. It’s only natural, I just hope that it’s in good spirits and it doesn’t go too far,” he further added.

Australia and South Africa will take on each other in three T20Is and as many ODIs which will begin on Friday at the Wanderers. However, both Smith and Warner returned to international cricket with a bang last year. While Warner had a wonderful ICC World Cup and Indian Premier League, Smith had a stunning Ashes series for Australia.