David Mark Smith (born 9 January 1956) is an English former

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er, who played in two

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

and two

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

s for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

from 1986 to 1990. Standing 6 feet 4 inches tall, Smith was a dominating opening batsman, particularly renowned for his skill and bravery in facing

fast bowling Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. T ...

. His volatile nature saw him sacked and re-employed three times by Surrey.

Life and career

He began his county career at

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

in 1973, spending over a decade there before moving to

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

in 1984, and was then selected for the England tour to the West Indies in 1985–86. After failing in his debut Test in Kingston, he top scored in both innings against the formidable

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

attack in the second Test, before missing the rest of the tour with a back injury. After a brief return to Surrey, he moved to

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

in 1989, and that winter was again summoned to the Caribbean after an injury to

Graham Gooch Graham Alan Gooch, (born 23 July 1953) is a former English first-class cricketer who captained Essex and England. He was one of the most successful international batsmen of his generation, and through a career spanning from 1973 until 2000, h ...

. Unfortunately for Smith, he broke his thumb in his first tour match, and did not play in any of the Tests. In the 1993, NatWest Trophy final he scored 124, only to see his side lose a remarkable match to

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

. After retiring from the team, he moved onto the Sussex coaching staff. In a career of 319 first-class games, he scored 15,265 runs at an average of 36.17, with a highest score of 213. He scored 28 centuries, 76 half centuries and held 204 catches.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, David 1956 births Living people England Test cricketers England One Day International cricketers English cricketers Surrey cricketers Sussex cricketers Worcestershire cricketers Sportspeople from Balham Cricketers from Greater London