Dubai: Former South African skipper Graeme Smith entertained budding cricketers with tales from his career at the G Force Cricket Academy organised ‘Meet-and-greet Smith’ function at the DPS Academy. He narrated anecdotes from his career and answered questions from youngsters before he was literally mobbed by them for autographs.
Smith showed them a video of how he batted with a broken hand after being hit by Australia’s Mitchell Johnson delivery to try and save the 2009 Sydney Test match with 8.2 overs left on the final day. Though he did not succeed, Smith held on until two overs were left before close. “Australians were the toughest opponents. They were a challenging team with players like Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath and batsmen like Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh,” he said to a query on who was his toughest opponents.
Smith, who also conducted a Masterclass with Smith coaching session organised by G-Force, was so impressed with the talent here that he told Gulf News: “If I can play a small part in helping create UAE’s next cricketer that will be great.
“It is always exciting to see the game of cricket grow and having spend little bit of time now in Dubai and Abu Dhabi it is exciting to see that the kids here love the game of cricket and is a big part of their life.”
Smith had a piece of advice for youngsters who want to become cricketers: “First you have to love the game, it takes a big deal of your time and you have to make a lot of sacrifices. Find yourself a leaf in what you do. It is a big world out there and you have to perform for a very long time and for that you need to have self belief and make a lot of friends along the way. Everyone would like to see UAE region have a very strong cricket team. If I can play a role in the future I would certainly love to do it.”