by Mayukh Ghosh
“In the early 1980s I was reading a cricket magazine and complaining about how ordinary an article was and saying that anyone could write this stuff. My then girlfriend, now my wife of 35 years, Leanne, looked at me and said, ‘Well go on then.’
She called my bluff, so I wrote an article about Leicestershire and Rhodesian batsman Brian Davison’s time in Tasmania. I sent it to the editor of the Cricketer magazine, Christopher Martin-Jenkins and he published it and paid me for it. It was the first time my work got into print. I thought this was pretty good and that’s how it started.”
Rick Smith was born in Launceston, Tasmania. His father Keith was a good cricketer and young Rick often accompanied him to the matches. When the father-son duo played cricket all afternoon, his mother made the afternoon teas for the players.
“I loved every minute but was pretty tired by Saturday night!”
The biggest influence on young Rick was his father. He took the 7-year-old to watch MCC v Combined XI at Launceston in 1962/63 and taught him how to play the game.
“Respect and umpire’s decision.”
“Follow the rules of the game.”
Launceston didn’t get much taste of big cricket. Despite that, Rick managed to see Garry Sobers score two centuries. He even managed to get his autograph and, after all these years, still believes he’s the greatest.
Reading on the game followed and once again his father showed the way.
“My father also got me interested in cricket books. He had a few – like Bradman’s Farewell to Cricket and Fingleton’s Cricket Crisis, but my favourite was Ray Robinson’s work which I read over and over again. I loved his essays on players. He made them come alive and to want to know more about them, so that got me interested in the game’s history and in collecting cricket books. I used to save my pocket money and wait for the book sales to go looking for bargains. It was the start of a collection that now numbers around 1700 volumes. Robinson remains my favoutire author, but there are some other good ones like David Frith, David Foot and Gideon Haigh whose works are all part of my library.”
In addition to writing, Rick has been a keen photographer. Since 1990, he has been Cricket Tasmania’s match photographer, recording all their home games.
“It’s been great fun, covering International and Big Bash and women’s cricket as well as the Sheffield Shield. Both the writing and photography have kept me in touch with the game.”
Rick Smith has written 25 books on the game, including acclaimed and award-winning biographies and tour books.
And read about 100 times that number.
Naming his ‘top ten’ was not easy and his immediate reaction to my request was ‘What a task!’.
But he managed to narrow it down to ten fairly quickly and here they are:
On Top Down Under by Ray Robinson – the best book by a brilliant writer, master of the short essay.
Wally Hammond – the Reason Why by David Foot – another brilliant writer who really answered all the questions about an enigmatic character. I understand he received a lot of criticism from some Hammond lovers, but you have to tell the truth as you find it.
Bodyline Autopsy by David Frith – easily the best book on the subject.
Mystery Spinner by Gideon Haigh – the best work by today’s best writer. Iverson was so little known, and he did such a great job.
First-Class Cricket in Australia by Ray Webster – the two volumes are superb research – you have to have them in your collection.
The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh – an excellent work on this period (covering Australian cricket in the 1950s and 1960s).
Green Sprigs by Ray Robinson – the first cricket book I ever read and still one of the best. The essays captured a child’s imagination.
Pageant of Cricket by David Frith – I love cricket photos, and this is a masterpiece. You could also include his work on The Golden Age of Cricket as well.
Australia 55 by Alan Ross – the best tour book in my opinion.
Great Batsmen and Great Bowlers by George Beldam and CB Fry – the two volumes are superb and give us magical images of the greats of the Golden Age.
“There are others that could be included, and I’ve taken the liberty of putting the two Fry and Beldam books together, but I think that’s a pretty accurate list.”
It is a great list. These books should be read by anyone with any interest in the history of the game.
And are ‘must haves’ for the serious aficionados.
The same can be said about most of Rick’s own books.