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It is not far off two decades since Hazlewood and Steve Smith, whose parents Pete and Gillian owned a five bedroom in the Sutherland Shire suburb, debuted for the Blues in 2008.<\/p>\n
The residence, which was just a few minutes from Casuarina Oval where Smith made his first century in the under-10s, had a pool and a grass strip flat enough for backyard cricket, a perfect place for a young batter with stars in his eyes.<\/p>\n
And cricket was all the champion Australian batter, who used to shadow bat in the middle of the night when unable to sleep, wanted to chat about as the pair set their sights on breaking into the NSW team.<\/p>\n
The topics of conversations might differ now, with Hazlewood saying their chats around a BBQ would touch on \u201cgolf and horse racing\u201d, with the superstar No.4\u2019s life in New York also on the agenda. <\/p>\n
When based in his home away from home, Smith and his wife Dani revel in everything great about life in Manhattan, including bike rides through Central Park and jogs along the Hudson River. <\/p>\n
There is an old batting cage he has used to keep his eye in but the Big Apple provides a sanctuary to put the bats away and has dimmed his obsessiveness with the sport.<\/p>\n
As Smith said in a recent profile for cricket.com.au, New York provides him with an escape.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m back home and I get bored, I might just have the itch to go and hit some balls,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the age I\u2019m at now, I actually feel it helps to put my tools down and stimulate my mind in other ways.\u201d <\/p>\n
But little else has changed about Smith\u2019s personality from when he was a cricket mad kid with big dreams growing up in Sydney\u2019s south, according to his old boyhood house mate. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think he has been the same person the whole way through from when I used to stay at his house,\u201d Hazlewood told foxsports.com.au<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d come down from the country and stay a few nights at \u2026 his parents\u2019 house at that stage to train with the Blues. He hasn\u2019t changed too much over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve Smith was pictured having a beer in a New York bar not long after the Sandpapergate scandal, but it was subsequently revealed he was waiting to meet Aussie actor Hugh Jackman.Source: Supplied<\/p>\n
The skillset central to Smith\u2019s excellence<\/p>\n
Smith\u2019s status as a Hall of Fame cricketer is indisputable leading into his return to South Africa, the land where it was once feared his remarkable career would be scorched for good.<\/p>\n
There will be a significant focus on his role in Sandpapergate, the scandal in 2018 which cost him the Australian captaincy and a year of cricket, leading into the first Test in Durban beginning on Friday.<\/p>\n
The veteran has recently stressed that he has blocked out much of what happened back in 2018 by design and while Proteas\u2019 fans are certain to try to remind him of the saga, Smith has shown a propensity to respond to being challenged by dominating.<\/p>\n
Poking the bear could backfire in a series between last year\u2019s World Test Championship finalists if the 37-year-old can find his groove in a country he had previously enjoyed playing in, noting he felt \u201cpretty relaxed\u201d about the coming series.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou take last time out – where I have blocked most of it from my memory, tried to forget most of it – the series before (in 2014) was actually one of my favourite series I\u2019ve been involved in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Steve Smith opens up on ‘Sandpaper’ Gate | 06:20<\/p>\n
But with the 38-year-old again putting life after cricket on the agenda when saying recently he was no certainty to feature in next year\u2019s Ashes series, reflections on his legacy have begun.<\/p>\n
To get to where we are now, with the former Australian captain having made 37 centuries in 125 Tests and an average just shy of 54, it is worth revisiting the infancy of his career.<\/p>\n
Australian great Greg Chappell, who considers him one of the finest cricketers the nation has produced, worked with the fledgling talent at the Centre of Excellence about the same time Hazlewood was crashing at Alfords Point with the Smiths.<\/p>\n
The right-hander with cherubic cheeks had immense promise but the challenge at that stage was to make him a more rounded cricketer rather than a batsman with a particular strength playing to the leg side. <\/p>\n
What Chappell admires most about Smith since then is his ability and desire to evolve. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he\u2019s achieved is incredible,\u201d Chappell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came through the Center of Excellence when I was the head coach up there, so I had lots of chats to him about batting, and I\u2019ve talked to him since about batting. Steve has a very different approach to batting than anyone I\u2019ve ever seen and if you don\u2019t think like Steve, it\u2019s hard to bat like Steve. It\u2019s not something that I would think that you would coach someone else to do, but you wouldn\u2019t stop him doing it. <\/p>\n
\u201cI remember when he came through the Center of Excellence, he was predominantly a leg side player, and we worked on improving his off side play. It was not to and was never going to diminish his leg side play, but just to make sure he had other options when he got to Test cricket, because they were going to be good enough to be able to restrict him. And, you know, I think he\u2019s developed his off side play. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s probably had three iterations as a batsman in my eyes, looking at him as a younger player, sort of middle-aged player and an older player. He\u2019s reinvented himself a couple of times and each time \u2026 you got a better version of Steve Smith.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greg Chappell, then working as a national selector, chats with former Australian coach Darren Lehmann and Steve Smith prior to Day 1 of the Third Ashes Test match between Australia and England at the WACA in 2017.Source: AAP<\/p>\n
He was always a batsman<\/p>\n
The miraculous moustache of Merv Hughes always bristles when someone suggests that the Aussie selectors stumbled on Smith\u2019s formidable batting talent back in 2010.<\/p>\n
Just because Smith batted at No.8 on debut against Pakistan in a Test at Lord\u2019s when taking three wickets with his leg-spin does not mean the Australian selection committee was blind to his ability when he was picked, Hughes said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came in as a very young boy and I still remember people think he got picked as a leg spinner and I just think, \u2018How would you bloody know?\u2019\u201d Hughes said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a bloody selector at the time, so I had a fair idea as to what he got picked for. He was performing in Shield cricket leading into his selection and since his selection what he\u2019s been able to do and what he has achieved has been amazing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t really sat down with him since but I\u2019d love to because I reckon he\u2019s got a fantastic cricket brain and that showed when he was captaining Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith warned again | 01:41<\/p>\n
Chappell points to his various reincarnations throughout his career as an example of his greatness. <\/p>\n
What Hughes admires the most about Smith, who has 19 Test wickets at an average of 53, is his adaptability. <\/p>\n
\u201cEven as a young man, just the way he developed and got himself into positions was excellent, so to watch him progress through state cricket, to watch him play the Big Bash, and to watch him play cricket in all formats, he just truly adapts himself to the game that he is playing, and that\u2019s a quality only the truly great players have,\u201d Hughes said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone has their own definition of a champion, but a champion to me is someone who can sum up the conditions you\u2019re playing in, sum up the situation of the game, sum up the opposition and, most importantly, play accordingly. And Steve Smith has that ability.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople say that great players play the same way all the time. No, they don\u2019t. You see Steve Smith playing against England in England and his technique is (different) to when he plays India in India. Different conditions, different opposition, obviously different situations of the game, he\u2019ll change his technique to suit and only the great players can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Destined to be Australian captains: Tim Paine and Steve Smith ahead of their debuts for Australia in a Test between Pakistan and Australia at Lords in 2010.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Is Smith a one-off? Or can (and should) others try to mimic the superstar?<\/p>\n
Discarded Aussie opener Jake Weatherald has a close mate who can handle the bat on the domestic scene who has mirrored his game on the maestro.<\/p>\n
The Northern Territorian will not reveal who it is but his somewhat derogatory nickname will surely give it away to anyone who has played alongside the mystery man.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of my mates who\u2019s played a lot of first class cricket basically idolises him and does everything the same as him. He\u2019s called \u2018Temu Smith\u2019,\u201d Weatherald said. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe has found some success doing it, but for me, I tried to do it in a game and just felt horrific. So it just shows how different you have to be to be good and he\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is it advisable to borrow from his mannerisms? Or the loudness at the crease that so irritates rivals, as AB de Villiers confided recently on the Keepin\u2019 It Cricket podcast<\/a> while also confirming he has great admiration for the way the Aussie has played.<\/p>\n Absolutely, Weatherald said. But succeeding while doing it is another matter.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is one of those frustrating ones to watch, but he is a great problem solver,\u201d Weatherald said in a chat at the SCG last month<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cYou can tell by his technique that he problem solves the game better than anyone and that\u2019s why he moves so differently and \u2026 sometimes looks awkward. But he does what is needed to make runs, which I think is pretty cool to do. It is something that I definitely wish I could do as well. <\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say (it is the) hardest (to copy) actually, because he\u2019s got such a bizarre technique. He\u2019s generally the one you can try to copy because he\u2019s got such an extroverted way of moving, and it\u2019s sort of progressive across the crease and stuff like that. So you can pick up on it quite quickly when people are trying to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Weatherald on THAT viral Ashes moment | 01:52<\/p>\n