Former Australia captain is not taking part in the Caribbean Premier League because of the money, according to CPL’s chief operating officer Pete Russell. After initially deciding to skip the competition to spend more time with his partner Dani Willis, Smith changed his mind and joined Barbados as a replacement for Shakib Al Hasan, who opted to skip the upcoming edition of the tournament.

And now, Pete Russell has revealed the reason why Smith made a U-turn. Apparently, he and his partner, who is also his manager, thought that he needed playing time to get back into the mix of the sport.

"It was a relatively late change of heart but there weren't any financial incentives," Pete Russell, the CPL's chief operating officer, said.

"In consultation with his manager and wife-to-be, I think they decided he just needed playing time. He wanted to play hard cricket, get back into the swing of it and also fly under the radar.

"You don't get hassled by anybody in the Caribbean, that was a large part of it. If this were an opportunity in England for example, there'd be more of that."

Smith recently took part in the Global T20 Canada league, where his team might have done poorly but he was in fine touch as he scored 168 runs from 6 matches that included two half-centuries.