Ed Smith

Ed Smith Biography

With cricket literature becoming a shallower field each passing day, Ed Smith is a pleasant exception. He is cerebral, something that one does not equate with a domain that alternates between hagiography and mud-slinging. He has a scientific bent of mind, and an analytical approach. In short, in the pages where slang words are used in all sincerity as supposed humour, or one approaches the other extent of building pedestals and polishing imaginary halos around the heads of very mortal men, Smith is a pleasure to read. Not surprising, because in spite of all the cricket, including Under-19 Tests, Smith was a double-first in history at Cambridge.

But much before he became a cricket writer, sports writer and even a baseball writer, Smith was a very good batsman for Kent, and later an even better one for Middlesex, and became the 15th man with that surname to play for England.

In 2003 he scored 6 hundreds for Kent in as many matches, racing to 1,000 before anyone else that summer. With Nasser Hussain having just resigned, England needed reinforcement, and Smith stepped in to take on South Africa. He braved Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini and the rest of them to score 64 in his first innings in Test cricket. However, the remaining 4 got him 0, 0, 7 and 16.

That was the end of his Test career. He moved to Middlesex and captained them after two seasons. But breaking his ankle in 2008, he struggled to return to the fray before retiring that winter.

Arunabha Sengupta

Ed Smith Batting & Fielding Averages

Career

Avg

100s

50s

Test

ODIs

T20s

World Cup

Ed Smith Bowling Averages

Career	M	B	R	W	Avg	EC	SR	5WI	10WM	BBI	BBM
Test	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
ODIs	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
T20s	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
World Cup	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--		--