Judge leaves his court

These are sad times For English cricket in particular and Irsquom not referring to the shellacking at Perth courtesy Australian opener Travis Headrsquos nearunbelievable fourth innings centuryIn late November the wife of late England batsman Graham Thorpe opened up in an interview with Talksport saying her husband would have been alive had the England and Wales Cricket Board offered him more support before he took his own life in August 2024 The lefthanded batsman was relieved of his services as Englandrsquos batting coach in 2022 after which he battled depressionOn Tuesday news came through that England had lost another batting stalwart mdash Robin Smith mdash who played alongside Thorpe in 17 Tests and 10 oneday internationalsLike Thorpe South Africanborn Smith whose cause of death has yet to be released struggled with mental health issues Smith was open about it in his 2019 book The Judge More Than Just a Game He was known as Judge to mates because his curly hair resembled a wig that judges wearThe bookrsquos Prologue dwells on what a wreck he was in 2013 after losing ldquomy marriage my home my children not to mention my identity money dignity direction purpose and hoperdquo Towards its end there is a chapter titled Reinvention Smith was transformed and said he enjoyed coaching even those days when sessions stretched to seven hours in 37degree heat at Perth However his fatherrsquos death caused him to fall back into old patternsFrom an interview done by Simon Wilde The Timesrsquo cricket correspondent and exEngland fast bowler Gladstone Smallrsquos Facebook account we learnt that Smith caught up with his former England teammates in Perth a few days before his death mdash Graham Gooch David Gower Allan Lamb and Small himself also commentator Mark Nicholas his captain at Hampshire Smith spoke to Wilde about how England Lions head coach Andrew Flintoff invited him to chat with the young guns and he reluctantly obliged It reminded me of the late Terry Jenner reluctantly making it through the main gates of the Adelaide Oval to be interviewed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in the summer of 199293 as Shane Warnersquos spin guru Smith was hesitant because he wondered whether the England Lions would remember him Jennerrsquos reluctance was based on being ashamed since he served a prison sentence for embezzlement Warne incidentally was a mate of Smithrsquos The late spin legend was one of the Foreword writers Nicholas was the other for Smithrsquos book Warne revealed that they first met each other when Smith was part of the England squad for the 199091 Ashes tour Warne who was with the Australian Cricket Academy had been approached to recommend some places where Smith and Lamb could spend their late evenings Nine years later Warne signed for Hampshire where Smith was captain They found themselves at opposite ends in the 1993 Ashes and Warne dismissed his pal four times in five Tests Warne didnrsquot believe Smith was a bad player of spin and Smith took pride in his performances against the turning ball no matter how poorly coaches like Ray Illingworth and Keith Fletcher thought of him as a spin tackler He didnrsquot have a threefigure innings to show on his 199293 Test tour of India But he scored halfcenturies in the Chennai 56 off 89 balls and Mumbai 62 off 166 balls Tests The following month in the oneoff Test against Sri Lanka at Colombo Smith as opener took 128 and 35 off a Sri Lankan attack that included Muttiah Muralitharan and Jayananda Warnaweera ldquoIt was really hard work That was my best innings against spin and possibly my best overall in terms of concentration fitness and resilience I didnrsquot play any beautiful square drives or anything like that as there was no pace in the wicket In fact I barely played an attacking stroke But I hung in there getting outside the line to Murali whenever I could and got ugly runsrdquo he wrote in The JudgeAs highlighted in most tributes to Smith he got three of his nine Test centuries against the West Indies at a time when they were one of the two best teams in the world Against India in 1990 he helped himself to centuries in consecutive Tests mdash at Lordrsquos and Old Trafford mdash averaging 18050 in that series Ravi Shastri who figured in all three Tests of that rubber and also clashed with Smith during his county cricket stint at Glamorgan told me on Wednesday ldquoJudge was a terrific player of genuine fast bowling a point fielderrsquos nightmare Lovely bloke Really sad to see him go God bless his soulrdquo The Australians respected him too and the selectors may have been mighty pleased when they saw him carve two hundreds against the old enemy in the 1989 Ashes where nothing much went Englandrsquos way Unfortunately for England Smith could not improve on that Ashes centuries countSmith was highly respected by South Africa his country of birth but he couldnrsquot come up with a threefigure knock against Hansie Cronje amp Co The fast bowlers were let loose on him and he responded by smashing spearhead Allan Donald for three fours in four balls in the opening Test of the 199596 series at Centurion Not long after he was bowled by the burly Brian McMillan for 43 ldquoItrsquos a sad time indeedhellip too young He was a great change room fella to have a beer withrdquo former allrounder Brian McMillan said to me on TuesdayFormer players are often asked what they miss most about cricket in their postplaying years Many of those answers will centre around the fact that they miss the camaraderie and being in the company of their teammates And Smith was particularly fortunate to have met some of them before the eternal judge sentenced him to the great beyondmiddayrsquos Deputy Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stanceHe tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper