I met Robin Smith, England's bicep-bulging slayer of fast bowling, days before his tragic death - the real 'Judgey' was crippled by self-doubt after England discarded him
Robin Smith, who has died suddenly at the age of 62, had a sensitive smile and a vicious square cut, and somehow both captured this complex and much-loved man.
There were few more powerful batsmen around in the 1990s, when Smith transcended the struggles of the England team to finish with more than 6,500 international runs and 13 hundreds, and woe betide anyone fielding at point.
He should have played more than 62 Tests, but the management took against him, for reasons ranging from his outside business interests to his advocacy of a team psychologist. It never made much sense to those without his talent that he should be so utterly lacking in self-belief, yet there it was – a tendency that would last the rest of his life.
Even when he agreed to be interviewed by Daily Mail Sport last week at Lilac Hill, near his home in south Perth, he insisted that the England Lions players he had been asked to address by head coach Andrew Flintoff would have no idea who he was. Nonsense. They hung on his every word, then lined up for photos. Smith loved it – part relief, part pleasure.
In fact, the entire Perth leg of England’s Ashes tour had given him, if not a new lease of life, then a reason to be cheerful. He had been feted at Perth Stadium during the hopelessly truncated first Test, and was thrilled to catch up with old friends, his old middle-order confrere Allan Lamb among them.
And Smith still loved cricket, even if he watched less than he used to. Walking out with Lamb on the eve of the game to inspect the Perth pitch, he was surprised how green it was: ‘And then the next morning we won the toss and batted. I thought, that was a s*** decision.’ Then he laughed. A curse, then a grin: vintage Smith.
Robin Smith, who has died suddenly at the age of 62, was one of the most powerful batsman of the 1990s and transcended the struggles of the England team
Smith was invited by Andrew Flintoff to speak to the England Lions in Perth less than two weeks ago
The Judge, as he was known during his playing days, played 62 Test matches for England
Above all, his old team-mates and opponents had simply been relieved to see him alive and kicking, after he came close last year to dying from cirrhosis of the liver. In our interview, which ended with him in tears, he said he had drunk a bottle of vodka a day for 12 years. He also mentioned thoughts of suicide. ‘It’s lovely to see Lazarus back,’ was how he characterised his buddies’ response. Those words seem even more poignant now.
I had asked him for an interview in the hope of hearing his views on Bazball (which he shared, with a typical mix of affection and angst). But, early on, he mentioned his health scare, and later I asked whether he was happy with his life now that he appeared to have moved on. And that’s when it all came out.
His drinking had been triggered by his premature dropping by England in 1996, and soon came the end of a long marriage to Kath. His mum died during Covid, and his dad – a disciplinarian in Smith’s childhood who became his best friend – only four months ago.
As if all that wasn’t enough, he said that only the previous evening he had heard that his partner of 17 years, Karin, was not sure she would make it home from undergoing stem-cell treatment in Europe after she was belatedly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
If it was striking that he seemed happy to unburden himself to a relative stranger, then it also reflected his interest in the inner life: years earlier, in a bid to deal with his crippling self-doubt, he had studied psychology. His nickname, ‘Judgey’, was a mask, he said. His real identity was Robin, shy and reserved.
And yet, for years, England fans knew him mainly as a brutal slayer of fast bowling, with bulging biceps, a grille-free helmet and a habit of opening his eyes wide as he walked to the middle, the better to accustom himself to the light.
Three of his nine Test hundreds came against the mighty West Indians, and he averaged a tick under 50 on home soil. His unbeaten 167 in a one-day international against Australia at Edgbaston was Bazball ahead of its time. And he was a better player of spin than some imagined, averaging 63 against India, 44 against Pakistan, and once scoring 128 against Sri Lanka opening the batting against Muttiah Muralitharan on a Colombo turner.
Despite all that, the doubts wouldn’t go away. And Smith reckoned he wasn’t the only one.
Smith's unbeaten 167 in a one-day international against Australia at Edgbaston was Bazball ahead of its time
Three of his nine Test hundreds came against the mighty West Indians and was a better player of spin than some imagined, averaging 63 against India and 44 against Pakistan
Smith admitted to suffering from crippling self-doubt, which led to him studying psychology
The South-African born star had caught up with old friends Graham Gooch (left) and Allan Lamb (right) only last week at the Ashes
‘There was a lot of the players in the England side who struggled a little bit with self-belief,’ he said in Lilac Hill. ‘Certainly me, without doubt. Jeez, I never believed in myself. Absolutely not, never.
‘I said, do you think that maybe we could employ a sports psychologist, to come and be with us and sit with us during the day? Psychologists need to see you, to understand you, to know how you are before going out to bat. After all, it was good enough for Tiger Woods.’
The response from the management that anyone who needed a psychologist shouldn’t be playing for England in the first place. Smith winced at the memory.
But it was also clear during our chat that he was temperamentally unsuited to staying angry for long. Every piece of criticism seemed preface with an ‘I love him, and I don’t mean this in a bad way’, and ended with a ‘bless his soul’, if that person was dead.
Smith has gone too now, and it’s hard to fathom. Last week, he said how much he was looking forward to watching the Brisbane Test at home on TV. Instead, everyone at the Brisbane Test will be thinking about Robin Smith.
