Benjamin Francis Smith (born 3 April 1972) is a former English

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

er who was a right-handed batsman and occasional right-arm medium-pace bowler.

Career

Leicestershire

Smith played for the

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

second team for a couple of years as a teenager before making his first-class debut in the 1990 season in a game against

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

; he was lbw for four in his only innings, but got another chance in a

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

match against

Glamorgan Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an ea ...

a fortnight later. He made 15 not out in the first innings before Leicestershire declared, and not batting at all in the second. He did not play another first-class game that season, though he did make a handful of appearances in the Refuge Assurance League. Smith went on the 1990–91 Under-19 tour to New Zealand, and played in all five of their matches (two "ODIs" and three "Tests"). He made no real impression with the bat, with a top score of only 44, but had some success as a bowler, taking the wicket of future New Zealand senior team captain

Stephen Fleming Stephen Paul Fleming (born 1 April 1973) is a cricket coach and former captain of the New Zealand national cricket team. He was a left-handed Batting order (cricket), opening batter and an occasional right arm slow medium bowler. He is New Zea ...

on three occasions in the "Tests". Back in England, he had a reasonable 1991 season, making 674 first-class runs at an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

of 37.44, although the highest of his 23 innings was only 71. Smith then went through a lean spell, and despite a maiden hundred against

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city in north east England **County Durham, a ceremonial county which includes Durham *Durham, North Carolina, a city in North Carolina, United States Durham may also refer to: Places ...

in April 1992, the nadir came in the

1993 season The General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its calendar advanced 24 hours to th ...

when Smith averaged a low 14.61 in 18 first-class innings, being dismissed in single figures on 11 occasions and only once passing fifty. Some recovery followed as he averaged just over 30 in each of the following two years, but it was

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

that saw him return to form with three centuries including 190 against Glamorgan in August, and passing a thousand runs in a first-class season for the first time, finishing with 1,243 at 47.80 and helping Leicestershire to their first County Championship since

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

. Two more good seasons followed, and in the final Championship game of the 1998 season Smith made his highest first-class score of 204 against

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 ...

as Leicestershire defeated their opponents by an innings and 211 runs. He stayed at Leicestershire for another couple of seasons, rising to the position of vice-captain, before unrest within the club led to his resignation to join

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 ...

for

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

. Meanwhile, he had enjoyed two productive seasons with

Central Districts The Central Stags, formerly known as Central Districts, are a first-class cricket team based in central New Zealand. They are the men's representative side of the Central Districts Cricket Association. They compete in the Plunket Shield firs ...

in New Zealand, hitting 201 not out against

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

in 2001–02 in a match where his team had lost their first three wickets by the time seven runs were on the board. cricket Ireland batting coach

Worcestershire

Smith found immediate success at his new county, averaging 44.51 and making four hundreds in 2002, as well as averaging over 50 in

List A cricket List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the num ...

for a combined first-class and one-day total of 2,024 runs. He was appointed captain for the 2003 season, replacing

Graeme Hick Graeme Ashley Hick (born 23 May 1966) is a Zimbabwean-born former England cricketer who played 65 Test matches and 120 One Day Internationals for England. He was born in Rhodesia, and as a young man played international cricket for Zimbabwe. H ...

, and continued in fine form that summer. However, he resigned the captaincy in the middle of the match against

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

in August 2004, handing over to

Steve Rhodes Steven John Rhodes (born 17 June 1964) is an English cricket coach and former cricketer. He was the former coach of the Bangladesh national cricket team. He was best known as a wicket-keeper, but was also a useful number six or seven batsman, ...

for the remainder of the season on the grounds that he wanted to concentrate on his form with the bat. In 2005 he passed 1,400 first-class runs in a season for the first time, although his form in

one-day cricket Limited overs cricket, also known as white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed within one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twenty20 cricket (3-h ...

was less impressive. In the final first-class match of the season, against

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

at New Road, he put on 333 for the fourth wicket with Stephen Moore before the latter was caught for 191. This established a new county record partnership for this wicket, beating the 281 that Younis Ahmed and Alan Ormrod had put on in

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

. Smith's 2006 season was rather less successful: he failed to reach 1,000 first-class runs for the first time since 2000, hitting 915 runs at 36.60 including one score of 203 he made against

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

in June. His form tailed off towards the end of the season, and in his last five matches he made only 163 runs in nine innings. In one-day cricket he scored 487 runs at 34.79, his highest average for four seasons.

Coaching career

He was appointed as batting consultant and fielding coach for

Ireland cricket team The Ireland men's cricket team represents All-Ireland in international cricket. The Irish Cricket Union, operating under the brand Cricket Ireland, is the sport's governing body in Ireland, and they organise the international team. The team ha ...

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Ben 1972 births Living people English cricketers Leicestershire cricketers Worcestershire cricketers Worcestershire cricket captains Central Districts cricketers Sportspeople from Corby Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Conservative Party (UK) people Cambridgeshire cricketers First-Class Counties Select XI cricketers Cricketers from Northamptonshire