“I received a call from Alan Butcher to play for England”: How Steve Smith could have easily played for England but chose Australia instead

Steve Smith could have easily played for England had he accepted a lip smacking offer from Surrey as part of a three-year deal.

Ask a random Cricket fan to list his/her picks for the greatest batters from the current generation, and Steve Smith would certainly find his name at least in their top-5. No wonder, a huge section of the followers of the sport even regard him as the best Test batter amongst active players, with numbers backing their claim as well.

His present average of 59.77 is best amongst active cricketers, and the sixth-best all time (irrespective of the number of innings played).

In the year 2017, Smith became only the second batsman to score over 1,000 Test runs for four successive years (2014-2017), and also went on to surpass the 1,000 run-mark with an average of over 50 in each of these years, becoming the first player do so.

Already a legend for Australia in the sport, the 33-year-old is fortunate enough to represent Australia at the international level, because as per a latest revelation by the man himself, his fate to represent his country laid rest on one very important decision he had to take at a very early age in his career.

New Aussie bowling coach Clint McKay has been assigned the unenviable task of giving Steve Smith throw downs. Thoughts and prayers for his shoulder at this time #SLvAUS pic.twitter.com/oHuQ6g7Eht

— Louis Cameron (@LouisDBCameron) June 3, 2022

Steve Smith could have easily played for England

As per his new book titled ‘The Journey’, the Australian mainstay has revealed that he had received a lucrative three-year contract offer from the English county club Surrey to play for them, back when he was mere 18 years of age.

It is worth of a mention that Smith was the holder of the British passport then, and had a mind-boggling offer up his sleeve, way more than what Cricket New South Wales (NSW) had paid him as part of his first ever Cricket contract later.

“I had to decide whether I wanted to press on with ambition to play for New South Wales and, ultimately, Australia or throw in my lot with English county side Surrey and pursue the possibility of playing international cricket for England,” Smith wrote in his book, The Journey.

“The Surrey club was aware of my status as a British passport holder and so I received a call from Alan Butcher, the former England opening batsman and father of fellow England international Mark Butcher, with the offer of the three-year deal. It was a lot of money to potentially throw at an 18-year-old and I’d never conceived of such a large amount in my life. If it had been about money then it would have been no contest. Surrey were offering me a three-year deal worth around £30,000 per year while my first rookie contract with Cricket NSW netted me around AUD$12,000.”

Clearing his mind away from money trap, the Aussie legend returned back to Australia and made his FC debut for NSW in January 2008, before making his debut for Australia across all formats in 2010.