As New Zealand’s premier wicketkeeper during a groundbreaking period on the international scene, Ian Smith is understandably pretty decent with his hands.
But the Kiwi, who celebrated his 67th birthday on the eve of New Zealand’s two Test series against Australia beginning in Wellington on Thursday, is renowned for another handy knack.
The course of history has placed Smith, who played 63 Tests and 98 one-day internationals for New Zealand, at the centre of some of his nation’s most memorable sporting moments since 1980.
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As wicketkeeper during a 12-year career with the Kiwis, he had “the best view in the house” to champion bowler Sir Richard Hadlee.
He was a starring member of New Zealand sides which posted breakthrough wins against Australia, England and India, while also knocking off the mighty West Indies at home.
The dismissal of Smith, who made two Test centuries for his country, at the MCG arguably proved the catalyst for the infamous “underarm” delivery bowled by Trevor Chappell in 1981.
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And behind the microphone Smith, an analyst and broadcaster for Fox Cricket, has captured and described some of the most famous moments in New Zealand sporting history.
He hugged then Kiwi Prime Minister John Key moments after assisting in the broadcast of the All Blacks nail biting 2011 World Cup triumph over France in front of a record crowd at Eden Park.
Smith has commentated at some of the world’s premier sporting cathedrals, from the MCG to Eden Park, from Wembley to Lords, Twickenham and beyond during a career of more than three-decades.
He remembers fondly the moment Richie Benaud stood aside to allow him to call New Zealand’s famous triumph over England at Lords in 1999.
And he delivered the famous line “by the barest of margins, the barest of all margins” after England edged the Black Caps in the history-making 2019 World Cup final at the same ground.
It has been, Smith said to Fox Cricket’s podcast The Follow On, a privilege to have been able to be involved in sport at the highest level for more than 45 years.
And as for those hands? A bent pinky here and some chips and scrapes elsewhere, they are not too bad for a wicketkeeper given the battering they received in his sporting lifetime behind the stumps.
THE KIWIS COME OF AGE
The 1980s saw Split Enz morph into Crowded House and the New Zealand cricket team progress from relative minnows to giant killers capable of matching and rattling the world’s best.
Smith’s first outing for his country was as a replacement fielder for a Test against Pakistan in Napier in 1978, where he stayed with friends for the game and was paid $100 for his efforts, only for his car to break down on his way home, resulting in $99.95 worth of repairs. Still, at least he made a profit.
Called on at late notice for his maiden Test match against Australia at the Gabba in 1980, he proved an outstanding keeper and swashbuckling bat, particularly in the one-day arena.
It was, he told foxsports.com.au, a tremendous time to be representing his country in cricket.
“It was a great career (and) it was an interesting time for New Zealand cricket. We tried to establish ourselves as, I guess, a respected nation,” he said.
“We still had not won in a lot of countries at that point. So I think that was probably one of the highlights, that we were able to go to England and win a Test match there, come to Australia in 1985 and break a duck at the Gabba and of course beat England and India in India, which is never an easy thing to do. Then, of course, we managed to beat that all powerful West Indian side back in New Zealand.
“If I look back, you mentioned some of my personal stats, but I think the team results at that point, just trying to do a job in a side that was complemented by a couple of world class players in Richard Hadlee and Martin Crowe and some seasoned professionals in John Wright and Geoff Howarth, and then the rest of us who really were playing cricket, not so much for a living at that point, but for the love of the game and then whatever happened as a result of that. As a transitional time for New Zealand cricket, it was good fun.”
Fans watching the recent T20 series at Eden Park clinched 3-0 by Australia would have noted the incredibly short boundaries.
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But rugby union grounds regularly hosted international cricket matches during Smith’s reign and he attributes that, along with an increase in the number of Tests the country played, as a reason the Kiwis started to come of age on the international scene.
“A lot of our grounds back in the early 80s were still … rugby grounds, so they were rectangular grounds, so a different shape,” he said.
“Teams found that just a little unusual to counter, but we were used to it (because) we were brought up on it.
“And the nature of our pitches, not by content and design, but our soil didn’t compact to the point where we had fast, bouncy pitches.”
Nor did the New Zealand pitches tend to offer much assistance to spin bowlers, with seam bowlers best placed to take advantage of the conditions in the Shaky Isles, he said.
“So we produced a succession of what we called these low seaming pitches which suited us and knew how to play on them, and opposition teams were quite foreign to them, particularly those from the subcontinent, so we built up a pretty good record against them,” he said.
HADLEE’S A … ALL—TIME GREAT
During an 86 Test match career that began in 1973 and finished in England in 1990, Sir Richard Hadlee earned a reputation as one of the greatest ever bowlers and all-rounders.
A tearaway quick in the 1970s, he shortened his run-up and became a dynamic seam bowler who was considered the original Sultan of Swing in a career where he finished with 483 Test wickets.
At the time, it was a world record and Smith had the good fortune to be standing behind the stumps for the final decade of the legend’s career.
“I probably had the best seat in the house, to be perfectly honest,” Smith said.
“He was, without doubt … clearly the most accurate bowler I played with and I’ve seen since then in my time as a commentator.
“His ability to make batsmen play, his ability to use a new ball was probably second to none that I’ve seen. He hit the seam pretty much every delivery when it was needed.
“He was not an overly prodigious swinger of the ball, though he was able to do that, but he seemed to be able to just bowl that nagging length where batsmen found it difficult to dominate him. And he was much quicker than people gave him credit for. He could bowl a very good bouncer, but he only used that when he felt like there was an asset for us.”
Smith said the champion bowler, who was singled out by Australian crowds for abuse with the chant “Hadlee’s a wanker” accompanying every spell, was a perfectionist in every way.
“He used to say to me, ‘Ian, I need you to keep an eye on my wrist, because I feel like I want the ball to be leaving my hand at 12 o’clock … but sometimes I feel like I’m getting a little bit more towards 1 o’clock. I need those two white lines the same coming straight down at 12 o’clock,’” he said.
“I mean, he was a perfectionist. If I took you into the New Zealand cricket dressing room … he had everything lined up absolutely perfectly, everything absolutely beautifully ironed and dressed and ready to go. Bats ready. Gloves ready. Cricket boots absolutely whitened to perfection. You would know, ‘Yep. That is Richard Hadlee’.”
THE INFMAOUS UNDERARM DELIVERY AND SMITH’S LAMENT
The “underarm” delivery from Trevor Chappell, bowled at the behest of his brother and captain Greg Chappell, at the MCG in 1981 is considered one of the all-time low points in Australian sporting history.
But the incident, which was described in commentary by Richie Benaud as “gutless”, may not have occurred had Smith not fallen the ball prior.
A quick recap. With New Zealand needing a six to tie the third of a five match series, Chappell was ordered to roll the final delivery along the ground to Brian McKechnie. The Kiwi batter could do nothing other than block the ball, much to his and others disgust.
It created a furore but, as Smith says now, for a period he was not totally aware of what the fuss was about having lost his own chance for glory the ball before.
“When you look back at that tour, it is probably the one day that people remember the most, but it is not the one that we dwell on,” Smith said.
“There are a lot of people within that side who remain good friends of the Australians. And, you know, some of us are passing away now. People like Rod Marsh, for instance, who was very much part and parcel of that day.
“A lot of our guys who had known Greg and Trevor and still do and the relationships between the players, I think, never got to the stage where people expected that they would.”
Smith said he has seen the main protagonists since then and that the teams enjoyed a reunion where the “underarm” delivery was barely mentioned at all.
He argues a case could be made that the incident proved beneficial to New Zealand cricket given the interest it created at home.
“We were probably disappointed at the time and, more so, I was disappointed,” he said.
“I had blown an opportunity for a very special win in front of a good crowd, which would have been huge, and I hadn’t been able to get the job done, so I was disappointed for that reason.
“So when it when it actually blew up … in the ensuing days and then, because we were on the receiving end and (it was a case of) ‘little brother getting bullied again by big brother’, that sort of thing, our people at home in our country launched into it, more so than we’d ever expected. I had no idea it was going to be that bad when we got home.
“But it filled the grounds. That passion and that desire for revenge filled the grounds and it made a lot of people … interested in cricket and it made a lot of people play cricket, so New Zealand was better for it.”
A BLACK CAP TO AN ALL BLACK? UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH A KIWI PRIME MINISTER
Smith’s initial foray into the broadcast box was via a modest role.
During his playing career, he was always willing to discuss the news of the day with television crews or print and broadcast journalists, mindful of the role they played.
The Kiwi was still playing when he was asked by producers to assist with the identification of players during broadcasts at a time where there were no numbers on the backs of players.
From there, a second storied career began, with Smith having worked around the world in cricket and also rugby union alongside some of the greats of both games.
The All Blacks World Cup triumphs in 2011 at home and in 2015 stand out as iconic moments for Smith, who initially told an employer when approached about the rugby union role that he was not certain he had a lot to offer.
“I did 22 years doing that (and) that was fascinating and in that time I think I covered probably around 180 All Black Test matches, a couple of World Cups with the All Blacks and a hell of a lot of domestic rugby as well,” he said.
“The World Cup Final against France was just superb. We won it very, very narrowly and there was a huge amount of tension towards the end of the game.
“It is a corny expression, the weight of the nation, but you could feel the weight of the nation inside Eden Park and just how important that was.
“For me, to be able to be there for that, to be able to relate to the players … I think I hugged the Prime Minister after that. It was just
crazy. That is how much it united us all at home.”
The All Black triumphs were great. But broadcasting Test cricket remains the pinnacle for Smith.
“Rugby union was never number one. Broadcasting Test cricket, to me, is the ultimate … in my vocation,” he said.
“I know a lot of people will say T20 cricket is exciting. Yes, it is. That one day international cricket can be exciting and absorbing, but for me, Test cricket is number one.”
BY THE BAREST OF MARGINS …
Smith has broadcast too many marvellous moments to count, with a recent highlight Glenn Maxwell’s unbelievable double-century against Afghanistan during the World Cup in India last November.
“The best thing is you’ve got to be very lucky to be sitting in the seat at the right time. Commentary rosters are drawn up the night before and … you might get the second last stint and lead up to that,” he said.
“Who was the second last caller? Who knows? Who cares? It is one of those things.
“You have to be lucky to be … getting that one opportunity and the pressure is, of course, getting it right. But it’s not just me. It’s a three way thing. I’ve always seen it as a combination when it comes to commentary, not a competition. So in other words, you’re not fighting against each other. You’re just one team trying to get to the end result the way you should as a combo.”
The two most memorable are when Benaud stood aside to allow him to call the final moments of New Zealand’s first ever win over England at Lords in 1999, and the incredible World Cup final at the same ground two decades later where New Zealand fell marginally short.
In the latter, he was calling alongside former English captain Nasser Hussain and ex-West Indian quick Ian Bishop when a game of “twists and turns” became “one hell of a game of cricket”.
The trio were supposed to be off air 30 minutes earlier but the producer opted to allow the panel to continue on given the match was in the balance.
Smith’s assessment that England had won “by the barest of margins, the very barest of margins” provided the perfect assessment of an extraordinary moment in cricket.
“I was elated that I was able to call a spectacle like that, slightly disappointed that we had not won,” he said.
“I didn’t realise until probably the next day that things were … reflected in the fact that not only was it a great game, but that people enjoyed how it was described to them. So that was pretty cool. But I don’t know where those phrases come from.”
HANDING RIB-TICKLERS FROM SKULL
Then there is Kerry O’Keeffe.
As every member of the Fox Cricket broadcasting panel will attest, they are never sure when the former Australian spinner is going to deliver the “zinger” that leaves them incapable of actually doing their day job due to the mirth it produces.
“You don’t sit in the commentary box alongside him and think you are going to out-joke him, because it is not going to happen,” Smith said.
“Whatever you come up with, he will go better again. You just accept that every now and then, you are going to be a target. He might show a bit of weakness at some point and you might just poke him in the ribs slightly.”
Smith was on the receiving end of a couple of exchanges this summer which went viral on the internet, but he said there is far more to O’Keeffe than his ability to deliver a one-liner.
“Kerry O’Keeffe is a gem. He is an absolute jewel in the crown of commentary because we are in the market of informing, yes, but entertaining as well. And Kerry O’Keeffe is a master of both,” he said.
“He is one of the most well researched commentators I know. He knows things about young players coming into teams that I would never even imagine researching. And that’s one of the assets that people forget about him.
“He is a great caller of a moment, he is a lover of spin bowling, which is huge, and he’s just got this great ability to come up with a line – and it won’t happen every commentary, which is the beauty of it – but it happens when you least expect it and, boy, has he got some good ones.”
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