Robert Craddock: The singular focus of Steve Smith, cricket’s unique genius

Steve Smith’s idiosyncratic batting style was honed through thousands of hours in the backyard, and has junior coaches questioning what they teach.

Steve Smith reaches during his innings of 144 at Edgbaston. Picture: Getty Images

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When Steve Smith performs his trademark shadow defensive shots – on the bus, in the foyer, wherever – Australian camp mates have been known to quip “you’re strange’’.

And he would grin and reply “I’m not strange, I’m unique’’.

You can say that again. Cricket has seen no one quite like him, and may never do again.

We’ve read about athletes and fast twitch fibres but Smith is the first truly fast-twitched cricketer.

The quirky genius is the last of the backyard warriors who passed through the system before kids started trading their tiny blades and plastic stumps for mobile phones.

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Steve Smith reaches during his innings of 144 at Edgbaston. Picture: Getty Images

Would a modern youngster have the will to put down his phone or iPad for hours to face the thousands of balls Smith negotiated from his father Peter in the backyard of their Sydney home?

Doubtful.

Each year, to compensate for Steve’s improvement, his father would sneak a little closer when delivering the ball to the extent where he ended up bowling to him from 16 yards.

This type of singular focus doesn’t happen as much in these days of Fortnite and other distractions, but if it never happened back in the day, there would be no Steve Smith success story and no Ashes revival by Australia at Edgbaston.

Smith’s masterclass left their bowlers in a similarly distressed state to tennis players facing Rafael Nadal on clay, engulfed by the sense of hopelessness that comes when you realise your best is not simply good enough.

Steve Smith salutes the crowd following his innings. Picture: AFP

Smith drove England to the point that all of their plans – a stacked boundary field, bowling wide, bowling short or bowling straight – ended in a dust bin somewhere in Birmingham. And it was only day one of the series.

It was a redemption of sorts for his year out of the game for ball-tampering and Australia is now safe and secure in the knowledge he has come back as good as ever.

Smith cried for days after the ball tampering incident and no one really knew the depth of his devastation because apart from the fact that he eats, drinks and thinks cricket to the point of obsession – Smith keeps his inner self away from public view.

But we know this much. He suffered deeply.

When a photo was snapped of him alone in a bar in New York, news outlets were criticised for portraying him as looking lost and lonely. But those close to him conceded there were plenty of days when he did feel lost and lonely.

Smith’s teammates congratulate him on his return to the pavilion. Picture: Getty Images

Smith is so good that he has junior coaches around Australia questioning what they teach.

Conventional wisdom is being challenged by Mr Unconventional.

Smith was never formally coached as a youngster. The first time he looked at a coaching manual was when he was studying for his level one coaching certificate.

Don’t worry about all this straight left elbow theory. His model was “see ball, hit ball’’.

Both teams in the Ashes were aware of statistics which revealed two things about Smith – if you don’t get him to the wicket inside the first 10 overs of the innings or get him out in the first 20 balls of his innings, you might as well instruct English fans to “look away now’’.

Most superstar batsmen have an easy to spot ego.

Viv Richards had the swagger, Kevin Pietersen the strut, Sachin Tendulkar a surreal calmness, and Ricky Ponting a certain bounce that radiated confidence.

Smith has none of this.

He twitches and snatches at his gear and looks a ball of restlessness. Somehow it all comes together in a package which no bowler has found the answer to.

He’s right. Unique is the word.

Originally published as Robert Craddock: The singular focus of Steve Smith, cricket’s unique genius