Australia vice-captain and currently the second-ranked batter in MRF Tyres ICC Men’s Test rankings, Steve Smith, had been acclimatized to the English conditions during his late teenage days. In fact, he had even represented an English club team in Kent in the year 2007, three years before making his Test debut.
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It is quite a well known fact that Smith had made a national debut as a leg-spinner who could decently bat as well down the order. In fact, it took him not not less than three years to smash a maiden Test century.
However, not many years ago, a 17-year-old Smith had managed to impress one and all with his batting credentials in the English city of Kent. The homesick teenager had got an opportunity to play for the city’s Sevenoaks Vine club team and had smashed a fine century while batting as an opener right away.
Steve Smith Sevenoaks Vine Stint
Gavan Burden, the Sevenoaks Vine’s management committee chairman back in 2015, would remember how he had got to know about a certain Steve Smith via a phone call from one of his acquaintances in Kent named Tony Ward.
It was upon this Tony’s insistence that Smith was roped into the seconds team of the Sevenoaks Vine Club. During the club’s first match against league rivals Blackheath, Sevenoaks were set a massive 367-run target in a 50-over contest. Coming in to open the innings, Smith smashed 185 individual runs to help take his team over the line with as many as five overs to spare.
It did not take long for the talented all-rounder to make it to the club’s first team. He averaged some 40-odd for them during the season and also picked up some crucial wickets with his leg-spin bowling.
“Steve [Smith] was quite a shy 17-year-old who was focused only on playing cricket – he lived and breathed it. While he was with us, he averaged 40 in the league and took wickets with his phenomenal leg spin,” remarked Burden during an interaction with Kent Online in 2015.
Smith, too, the very year, admitted to have learnt a lot about cricket while playing for the club. “My time with Vine was enjoyable and it helped my game in the long run because the conditions were so different to those I played in back home. I learnt a lot about cricket by playing in England,” Smith had said.
Why Didn’t Steve Smith Play For England?
Post playing briefly for Kent’s second XI as well in the same year, Smith was offered a lucrative three-year contract offer from the English county club Surrey worth around £30,000 per year.
However, with an ambition to play for New South Wales and also live his dream of playing for Australia, Smith had turned down the offer. He returned back to Australia and went on his make his first-class debut for NSW in January 2008 before making his debut for Australia across all formats in 2010.
For those unaware, Smith was the holder of the British passport back then, as his mother hails from Kent. He was, thus, well and truly eligible to play for the England national team.
