Cricket is mourning the death of former England batsman Robin Smith at the age of 62, only a week after he spoke to Andrew Flintoff's Lions team at Lilac Hill near his home in Perth. Smith, born in Durban, had made Western Australia his home more than 20 years ago, after retiring from first-class cricket with more than 26,000 first-class runs to his name, and 61 hundreds – 49 of them for Hampshire. But it was a powerful middle-order batsman for his adopted England that he made his name, playing 62 Tests between his debut in 1988 and his final game, in his native South Africa in January 1996, and averaging 43 during a difficult period for the Test team. For sheer ferocity, his square-cut may never have been surpassed.
