The real Steve Smith is finally standing up

 

 

Despite my constant bragging on twitter, some people may not be aware that I grew up sharing a cricket field with Steve Smith.

That sentence certainly does me a lot more favours than it does Steve Smith. To say I ever got anywhere near him in terms of cricketing ability would be fanciful.

Everyone was aware of his talent from a young age. We both played for Illawong Cricket club and every presentation day would end the same way, Steve would walk away with junior cricket of the year, batting aggregate, batting average, and almost every other award.

One presentation day I walked away with the raffle prize, it was the only thing Steve didn’t win that day.

Despite playing for the same junior club and attending the same high school, I didn’t get a chance to play with Steve until we were both chosen for the open boy’s cricket side at Menai High school.

Everyone knew Steve had tremendous potential but playing with him you soon realised what a player he was and what a player he would soon become. Most players in the team would hit out and look to clear the fences, particularly when they would start to get tied down by the bowler.

Steve’s batting philosophy was just so different. He valued his wicket and would build his innings. We used to give him some stick that he would bat at such a slow rate. He didn’t have any of those unique shots we see him play these days, which I feel are an evolution of the Twenty20 skill set. Sure he could certainly hit some impressive boundaries, but he would just bat and bat all day and if he got tied down, he would work through it and wait for a loose ball. Sure enough the scoreboard would read yet another century to S.Smith, more often than not saving our bacon.

The best story I can say about Steve Smith is when Menai High met Endeavour Sports High, our fierce rivals in the Regional Cricket final. Endeavour possessed a strong side, with their main man, Moises Henriques, who would also go on to play Test cricket for Australia.

Moises had played Australian U19 at the time and had a bit of a reputation about him. He was fast and he was certainly feared.

It was the start of our innings and let’s just say not too many people were putting their hands up to head out to the middle and face the might of Moises Henriques.

We eventually managed to get an Indian exchange student, Sandeep to agree to be one of the openers, as he clearly had no idea what he was getting himself into. We even had to encourage him to take a helmet out there with him!

I was the perennial tailender of the team, so I sort of had a get out of jail card here. No one was certainly expecting me to put my hand up. I was the spinner of the team, with Smith my spin twin. I often tell people that I was Warne and he was MacGill.

To highlight my batting skills, once the captain of the team I was playing in broke his finger in the field. The competition had a rule that you could substitute a batsman with another bowler when out in the field and the two would change again when batting, which would usually see me handing my position in the batting line-up over. Yet even with our captain having a broken finger and being unable to grip the bat, there was still debate over who would take the crease. In the end though I was told to pad up and went out and made a stunning 18 runs that included three fours. All through the slip cordon.

But anyway, we had one opener and still needed another and Steve Smith was sick of waiting.

He picked up his bat, picked up his helmet and promptly told us all to “Harden Up!” in quite colourful language.

What makes this story remarkable was that Steve was one of the youngest in the side, which was made up of mostly Year 12 students like me. He was only in Year 9, and there wasn’t a lot of him at all. But none of it fazed him.

He was just such a competitor, who had a real confidence about him. It’s that swagger you see in the best batsmen like Warner, Clarke and Haddin. It’s not arrogance, just a faith in your ability and a determination to take on the bowlers.

I saw him play first grade for Sutherland as a teenager and go onto captain them a year later. I saw him break into the NSW side and win the Big Bash and Twenty20 Champions League in his early 20’s.

I also saw him struggle with the label as the next Australian spinner. He was never a spinner; he was always a batsman first. His leggies were always handy and they improved with his entry into the state ranks and international arena. But he was never the answer to replace Shane Warne.

His got his chance in the Baggy Green, but the pressure of having to take wickets and score runs was too much and he went straight out the other end. It’s no shame to be dropped from the Australian Test side; in fact it’s more a rite of passage these days. Waugh, Clarke, Warner were all dropped and all returned better players, just like Steve has this summer.

I wrote an article a couple of years ago saying the only way he would make his return was as a batsman. I’m no Nostradamus; it was simply dealing in the facts. The reason he was in a position to earn a Baggy green in the first place was the mountain of runs he scored in the junior ranks, high school, Sydney grade and State cricket.

After he was dropped he went back, concentrated on his batting and scored runs until the selectors said he could return.

I was talking to a friend of mine before the Perth Test and he was of the opinion that Australia should drop Smith. I disagreed, but felt Australia should drop him down to Number 6, to ease the pressure on the young batsman. I felt he looked burdened by the pressure of a top order collapse and couldn’t play his natural game when at the crease.

All that changed in Perth and we saw him make his first Test hundred on Australian soil. That was the moment the weight lifted and now Smith is showing what he’s truly capable of.

An innings saving century on his home ground at the SCG follows and suddenly he has three test centuries in his last six tests.

The real Steve Smith is standing up and it's great to see....I've been lucky enough to see it for years, and hopefully we see it for years to come.

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