{"id":294730,"date":"2025-12-02T11:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T11:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/294730\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T11:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T11:00:09","slug":"robin-smith-former-england-cricketer-dies-aged-62-cricket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/294730\/","title":{"rendered":"Robin Smith, former England cricketer, dies aged 62 | Cricket"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former England cricketer Robin Smith has died at the age of 62 with his family and former county Hampshire<\/a> saying they were devastated by his loss.<\/p>\n

Smith played 62 Tests and 71 one-day internationals for England between 1988 and 1996 and was a resolute middle-order bulwark for the side during often difficult times for the team. He particularly excelled against pace, making his highest Test score of 175 against the fearsome West Indies attack at Antigua in 1994.<\/p>\n

He made 4,236 Test runs overall at an average of 43.67, including nine centuries.<\/p>\n

The Durban-born Smith, known as \u201cThe Judge\u201d also captained Hampshire from 1998 to 2002, having helped them win the Benson & Hedges Cup in 1988 and 1992, and the NatWest Trophy in 1991.<\/p>\n

In a statement, his family said: \u201cIt is with the deepest and most profound sense of sadness and loss that we must announce the passing of Robin Arnold Smith, beloved father of Harrison and Margaux and cherished brother of Christopher.<\/p>\n

\u201cRobin died unexpectedly at his South Perth apartment on Monday 1st December. The cause of his death is at present unknown.<\/p>\n

\u201cRobin rose to fame as one of England\u2019s most charismatic and popular players. A brave and dashing batsman, he excelled both for Hampshire and his adopted country collecting legions of admirers and friends along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

His former Hampshire teammate Kevan James had tearfully spoken of Smiths death on Solent News on Tuesday morning. \u201cIt\u2019s been horrible,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a sad day, but when you look at someone\u2019s career\u2026 At the time, in the 80s and 90s, he was England\u2019s best batter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a super player, particularly of fast bowling in an era where the West Indies had all these fast bowlers. He was one of the few England batters who stood up to them and basically gave as good as he got.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hampshire cricket club sent its condolences to Smith\u2019s family and friends, with chief executive Rod Bransgrove describing the player as \u201cone of the greatest, if not the greatest, of all time Hampshire Cricket<\/a> heroes.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cHe was a batsman of awesome power and control and amongst the most courageous players this club has ever seen – especially against bowling of real pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut more than all of that, Robin embodied the spirit of Hampshire. He loved playing for his county. The Judge connected with everyone he came into contact with. He was one of the most popular players ever to play the game we all love, and he will be hugely missed by players, members, staff and supporters – not only in Hampshire, but throughout the country and beyond.<\/p>\n

Further plans to remember \u2018The Judge\u2019 will be announced by the club in due course.<\/p>\n

In the past few days, Smith had spoken to media again about the issues with alcoholism and depression that had marked his life since retiring from cricket.<\/p>\n

However, his family urged people not to second guess his cause of death. Their statement added: \u201cSince his retirement from the game in 2004 his battles with alcohol and mental health have been well documented but these should not form the basis of speculation about the cause of death which will be determined at postmortem investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an immensely difficult period for us all whilst we try to come to terms with our bereavement, and we would therefore much appreciate consideration for our privacy by media and cricket followers alike.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former England cricketer Robin Smith has died at the age of 62 with his family and former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-294730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}