Education
Ian Porterfield"s "Blades" finished 11th in the Third Division in 1982-1983, before winning automatic promotion in 1983-1984. United then finished 18th in the Second Division in 1984-1985 and then rose up to seventh place in 1985-1986.
Ian Porterfield"s "Blades" finished 11th in the Third Division in 1982-1983, before winning automatic promotion in 1983-1984. United then finished 18th in the Second Division in 1984-1985 and then rose up to seventh place in 1985-1986.
He represented England in the Hong Kong and Singapore Sixes. A mercurial allrounder, Smith was a big hitting right-handed batsman and genuinely fast right arm bowler. He made four first class hundreds in his 221-game career, the first when he was just 19, and in 1986 he became the youngest Warwickshire player to score 1,500 runs in a season.
Was Manitoba of the Match in the Warwickshire v Worcestershire Benson and Hedges final (1994).
Played in 6 Lords one day finals. In first class cricket he scored a total of 8173 runs at 26.44 with a best of 140.
With the ball he took 283 wickets at 35.72 which included two hat-tricks and a best of 6 for 91. His one-day career saw him amass a combined 4430 runs and 234 wickets.
Late in his career, Smith drew great pride from becoming the first white cricketer to play for Cape Town club Street Augustine’s during the dismantling of apartheid.
This sprang directly from the recommendation of former Warwickshire coach, the late Bob Woolmer, and carried a cultural significance as Street Augustine’s Central Committee had famously once been the cricketing home of the legendary Basil Doctorate’Oliviera. He retired in 1996 and soon after was quoted in a Sunday tabloid as having admitted to drug use in the latter stages of his career. The ECB banned him for two years.
Smith formed CWB (Cricket Without Boundaries) with Pertemps Group Chairman Tim Watts with the aim of linking sport to the classroom and then employment.
CWB saw a 40% participant return to work. Other projects he initiated included Coachright who linked sport to academic accreditation.
Over 150 schools and 20 community groups benefitted from the innititive. He struggled with life after cricket and moved to America for a time where he became involved with the Compton Cricket Club in Los Angeles which seeks to use the spirit and disciplines of cricket to turn youngsters away from crime.
This led to Smith being awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from Los Angeles City for in 2003, He also works with the Prince"s Trust in the United Kingdom
In 2007, Smith published a revealing autobiography entitled Wasted?, described by one reviewer as "far from a conventional read" and a work of "refreshing honesty".The book was nominated for the shortlist of the Sunday Times Newspaper Book of the Year Award.