Sheffield Shield returns to prominence and Steve Smith shines bright

THE performances of David Warner and Michael Clarke were not the sights for sore Australian eyes. No, that was Steve Smith.

Steve Smith has shown fine early-season form for NSW. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

In the past few weeks the Sheffield Shield has regained the status it should never have lost as a genuine proving ground for potential Australian players. Although not so much that anyone other than friends, relatives, cricket tragics and brown cardigan wearing stats nerds have bothered to turn up.

So an empty Melbourne Cricket Ground on a quiet Thursday afternoon can be a lonely place. Take your choice of the 99,673 empty seats, stare out upon the fabled arena and dream of Boxing Day.

Which, despite the echo of bat and ball and the half-hearted claps you might normally hear at a primary school piano recital, was not difficult.

There was David Warner smashing a century and celebrating with the now customary elation of a man whose belligerence seems tinged with defiance. Defiance against the officials who expelled him from England during the Ashes tour? Against the media who highlighted his obvious misdemeanours? Who knows.

But after three blistering Ryobi Cup centuries and an even more significant first class ton, Warner clearly plays well angry. Coach Darren Lehmann should poke his batting bear with a very large stick.

Steve Smith has shown fine early-season form for NSW. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

There was Michael Clarke at the other end. Which is all you needed to see. The elegant drives and cuts played in a cameo of 43 were incidental. Clarke arriving fit on delivery at the Gabba is far more important than anything he does in a blue cap.

But Warner and Clarke were not the sights for sore Australian eyes. That was the perpetual motion of Steve Smith who - believe it or not - might be the difference between a competitive Australian performance this summer and another pounding.

No, not that Steve Smith. Not the leg-spinner come all-rounder come slashing limited overs batsman who promised the world and delivered a small island just off the coast of Burkina Faso.

The Steve Smith who recently brought back through customs a maiden Test century and, more importantly, the confidence of a young man - he is only 24 - who seems to have found his feet at the top level.

Not that everyone back home caught up with that news. Upon returning from the Ashes tour, it was amazing how many remained unconvinced by Smith's excellent Ashes performances. The fighting 89 at Manchester, the breakthrough 138 not out at The Oval. Innings that were neither unblemished or, given Smith's unorthodox methods, technically perfect. But which, to the naked eye, revealed a young batsman gradually coming to terms with his limitations and imposing his strengths.

Perhaps Australia's calamitous start to the series caused many to disregard the incremental improvement that followed. More likely in Smith's case, his changing Test role as first a leg-spinner, then a bits part all-rounder and now, finally, a specialist batsman have created misconceptions about his ability with the blade.

As Cameron White, one of the Victorian bowlers on the receiving end from Smith at the MCG could attest, being a promising blond leg-spinner in the post-Warne era is not a mixed blessing. It is a constant curse.

That Australia craved Warne's magic bag of bowling tricks, and instead got Smith's party bag of long hops and full tosses, ingrained prejudices. It also enlivened those more caustic English fans who considered Smith's selection during the Ashes as a sign of Australia's desperation.

In that regard, Smith's career might be compared to that of Ian Bell, the English batsman who was himself - in a very different way - a victim of Warne. Not the great bowler's reputation, but his sharp tongue.

Warne called Bell the Sherminator, a not particularly flattering reference to the gormless red-headed virgin Chuck Sherman from the American Pie movies. But, if Bell can still seem like an eager pup in the presence of his teller and somehow more distinguished captain Alastair Cook, he has become England's middle order lynch-pin.

More reliable than Kevin Pietersen, more elegant with the bat than Cook. Three Bell centuries on the last Ashes tour asserted England's dominance and wrung the life from the Australian bowlers

Smith is far from a stylist and not just because of his loose-limbed strokes that, for the purists seem to contain far too many moving parts. But because of the constant fidgeting with his equipment and tugging on his clothes which are more reminiscent of Lleyton Hewitt than Greg Chappell.

Perhaps that is a sign that Smith's mind, like that of the stout-hearted tennis star, is constantly ticking over. That his name has been raised as a future leader suggests his teammates think so.

Of course, in troubled times, you must be wary of the Messiah Syndrome. Warner and, for a fleeting moment, even Ashton Agar have been considered instant solutions to Australia's decline.

Smith is no quick-fix or flash in the pan. Merely a player who has gradually grown into his game and his role. The summer seems his for the taking.