Jamie Carragher thanks shamed Australian cricket stars Steve Smith and Darren Lehmann for taking heat off his spit storm

SPIT-SHAME Jamie Carragher has tweeted his thanks to disgraced Australian cricket stars Steve Smith and Darren Lehmann for taking the heat off his actions.

But the Sky Pundit and former England star quickly deleted his post after he was blasted for making light of his own actions.

Jamie Carragher posted a picture of himself with disgraced Australia captain Steve Smith and former coach Darren Lehmann

Former international defender Carragher has been suspended from his role at Sky Sports since footage emerged of him spitting at a 14-year-old girl.

But just a 18 days after issuing a grovelling apology for his own disgusting behaviour, he has come out of hiding to mock cheat captain Smith and hapless coach Lehmann for assuming the role as the new sporting bad-boys.

Carragher posted a picture of himself with the pair on Twitter, with the simple message: "I knew you'd save me boys!"

Smith was a broken man when he arrived back in Australia this morning having been sent home from disgrace in the wake of the ball-tampering row that has rocked cricket.

He blubbed his way through a press conference and looked an emotional wreck - a display that led to Lehmann deciding he himself would be quitting as coach hours later.

Lehmann has been cleared of any wrongdoing in the scandal that has shamed Australia, but decided he had to take the fall as well as the players.

Smith and controversial batsman David Warner have been banned for a year by Cricket Australia, while Cameron Bancroft has been hit with a nine-month suspension for his role.

But while the site of the arrogant Australians coming crashing down to earth has been welcomed by some, Carragher's decision to poke fun has provoked outrage on social media.

Many believe the former England and Liverpool star is making light of the severity of his own actions, when he spat over a schoolgirl as he was driving his car along the road.

@Carra23 @SkySportsNews @SKYSP0RTSF000T @SkySportsMNF this is the man you want to keep in a job!!!! No shame, no remorse. Horrible man. I shall be cancelling sky.

— Ryan Jones (@jonesryan8611) March 29, 2018

At least they didn't spit at a child.

— The Bran (@TheBran3) March 29, 2018

Wow, you need a new media manger. Spitting in the face of a kid and you congratulate others, awesome tweet grub pic.twitter.com/2DIoyIUN3R

— Tim Dennis (@timothyd79) March 29, 2018

Probably not the best thing to say. It does go against your oh I am so sorry statement

— Simon - London - Essex -🇬🇧🍻✈️🎬 ⚽ (@simonr1972) March 29, 2018

Some users on Twitter applauded the post from Carragher, 40, believing it was a making fun of himself as well as the Australians.

But as the wave of critical responses came in, the European Cup winner decided to delete it before any more damage was done.

It is less than three weeks since Carragher appeared on Sky News pleading forgiveness as he said sorry for his shocking actions.

He said: "There are lots of regrets but the biggest one is for the 14-year-old to be caught in the middle of my altercation with the father.

"That devastated me more than anything else – a young girl who wasn’t involved in anything is now embroiled in this.

"I've got a daughter exactly the same age and if someone had done that there are no words as to how I'd react if I bumped into that person.

"The way that father sees his daughter is how I see mine.

"All I can do is apologise as much as I can. I can't go back. I've done that with the family and hopefully they accept that."