'A fearless hero for hapless England' - Robin Smith obituary

Robin Smith, who has died at the age of 62, was one of the finest players of fast bowling during an era when the England team were often viewed as a national joke.

Smith, moustache bristling, bravely taking on the terrifying West Indies pace attack or battling it out against the unrelenting Australians, was a familiar sight for England supporters for nearly a decade.

His signature shot, an immensely powerful square cut, made him a feared opponent and earned him admirers around the world.

Loyal to his friends as well as being respected by his opponents, his biggest battles ultimately came after retirement, and his off-field struggles with mental health and alcoholism were laid bare in his later years.

Robin Arnold Smith was born in Durban, South Africa in 1963 to British-born parents, and made his name as a schoolboy prodigy in cricket and rugby.

He was used as the model for the images in a coaching book written by revered South Africa Test opener Barry Richards, who became a lifelong friend.

His parents even bought the next-door house, knocked it down and built a cricket pitch where Robin and his elder brother Chris could practise - complete with an early bowling machine - and hired ex-Natal player Grayson Heath to coach them.

The younger Smith made it to the Natal squad at the age of 17, carrying drinks for the likes of Richards and another South Africa great, Mike Procter, but an early break came thanks to his brother.

Chris Smith had featured for Glamorgan 2nd XI in 1979, scoring a century against Hampshire, who were impressed enough to offer him a contract for 1980 as a replacement overseas player while Gordon Greenidge was away with West Indies.

When Chris returned in 1981, 17-year-old Robin accompanied him and was quickly signed up after a successful trial.

With a Walsall-born father and Edinburgh-born mother, the Smith brothers had a route into English cricket at a time when South Africa's apartheid regime meant a continued international ban.

However the rules meant that despite their parentage they had to serve a four-year qualification period. As a result, Chris would be deemed an 'overseas' player until 1983 and Robin until 1985.

Robin had to wait patiently for opportunities to play as an overseas player when Greenidge or Malcolm Marshall were unavailable.

His Hampshire debut came against Pakistan at Bournemouth in 1982. Perhaps as a portent of future struggles against spin, the teenager was bowled round his legs by wily leg-spinner Abdul Qadir.

In contrast, 2nd XI bowlers were put to the sword, with coach Peter Sainsbury bemoaning the cost of balls to replace those Smith had smashed out of the ground.

With Greenidge and Marshall away for the 1983 World Cup and then with West Indies in 1984, Smith had a longer spell in the side and hit the ground running as he became England-qualified in 1985, making more than 1,500 runs that summer.

While Chris won eight Test caps, those who watched them knew Robin was likely to eclipse his brother. Robin's England call eventually came in 1988, soon after he had played a destructive innings in the Benson & Hedges Cup final at Lord's.

The news broke on the morning of a Sunday League game at Edgbaston.

While the Smith parents loyally followed their sons around the country with Hampshire, father John was away that day, watching Seve Ballesteros win The Open at Royal Lytham. Mother Joy burst into tears when told of Robin's international summons.

Smith entered Test cricket with England in disarray against West Indies. His first Test at Headingley was under Chris Cowdrey, one of four captains England used in the summer of 1988.

But Smith gave early notice that he was not overawed by a four-man pace attack headed by his great friend Marshall, hitting 38 on debut and sharing a century stand with fellow South Africa-born batter Allan Lamb.

This was an era when England chopped and changed players frequently, using 29 in the 1989 Ashes, but Smith soon established himself as one of the important cogs around which the team was built.

His maiden Test century was a superlative 143 against Australia in Manchester, and Smith's bravery against fast bowling became a trademark of his game.

Wearing a blue England helmet without a visor or grille, he was at his happiest pulling, hooking or cutting the quicks.

Whether facing Caribbean bouncers or verbals from his old adversary Merv Hughes, he gave as good as he got.

While Smith's figures in one-day internationals did not match his Test statistics, his unbeaten 167 against Australia at Edgbaston in 1993 remained an England ODI record until 2016.

Smith was single-minded about batting - his first book was entitled Quest for Number One. Indeed, the International Cricket Council's retrospective world rankings had him at number two in 1991,, external a year Smith described as his "perfect summer", behind his captain Graham Gooch.

Despite being offered a trial with baseball's New York Mets - which could have potentially dwarfed his cricket earnings in an era before lucrative central contracts - he remained loyal to England, while still giving his all for Hampshire between Tests, winning man-of-the-match awards in two Lord's finals.

But this was an England side in transition. Coach Micky Stewart, who Smith adored and would describe as "my second father", departed at the end of the 1992 summer, which was also a last hurrah for Lamb, David Gower and Ian Botham.

It meant my dressing-room support network disappeared at a stroke," Smith later wrote. "Though I didn't know it at the time, I would never quite be the same player again.

Having learned to bat on hard, bouncy tracks in South Africa, a quirk of the calendar meant Smith was 36 Tests and more than four years into his England career before he played a Test on the subcontinent.

It became a perception that Smith struggled against high-class spin bowling, and in 1993, after averaging only 24 in India before being dismissed seven times in 10 innings by either Shane Warne or Tim May in the Ashes, that perception became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Smith had an operation after that summer on the nagging shoulder injury which destroyed his bullet-like throw from the boundary, but did not flourish under the man-management of Stewart's replacement Keith Fletcher or new chairman of selectors Ray Illingworth.

Having been an automatic pick for years, Smith was suddenly under the spotlight, his confidence dented by Fletcher's public criticism of his off-field activities, which included a company making cricket equipment.

South Africa by now had been readmitted to international cricket, and Smith was hugely disappointed to be dropped for the first home series against the country of his birth - and then omitted for the 1994-95 Ashes.

Injuries earned Smith a recall against West Indies in 1995 - which included a fractured cheekbone courtesy of Ian Bishop - and a tour ticket to South Africa that winter, but he continued to feel publicly undermined by Illingworth, who was now doubling up as coach after Fletcher's sacking.

After they crashed out of a chaotic 1996 World Cup on the subcontinent, Smith's England career was over at the age of 32.

Smith continued to play for Hampshire, captaining them - with a little reluctance - between 1998 and 2002, while dreaming of an England recall that never came.

He felt heartbroken when he was told he would not be offered another Hampshire contract at the end of 2003, and would later open up in his 2019 book about the demons he faced in retirement, explaining how his cricketing self and private self diverged.

"The Judge was a fearless warrior; Robin Arnold Smith was a frantic worrier," he wrote.

Relocating to Perth, Western Australia, to join his brother and parents who had moved there, he battled with mental health issues, the break-up of his marriage, and alcohol problems.

But the warm reaction from the cricket world to his book, and the life struggles he confessed, reinforced how fondly Robin Smith will always be remembered.

He wrote: "I wasn't one of the all-time greats, but if people remember me as a good player of raw pace bowling then I'm chuffed with that because it's something I worked so hard on."

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Source: BBC
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