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

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er, who played in two Test matches and two

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

s for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

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 a type of bowling in cricket, in which the ball is delivered at high speed. The fastest bowlers bowl the ball at over . Practitioners of fast bowling are known as fast bowlers or quicks. Also ...

. 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 counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

in 1973, spending over a decade there before moving to

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

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 an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

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 (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

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 1973 until 1997, he was ...

. 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 The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom. It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scotland and Ireland. Lan ...

final he scored 124, only to see his side lose a remarkable match to

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

. 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

1956 births Living people England Test cricketers England One Day International cricketers English cricketers Surrey cricketers Sussex cricketers Worcestershire cricketers People from Balham Cricketers from the London Borough of Wandsworth 20th-century English sportsmen {{England-cricket-bio-stub