The SSJCA and all it’s members wishes to congratulate Steven Smith on his selection for the Australian Twenty/20 team playing this Friday night.

From his humble days playing in the U10 competition for Illawong, where he picked up the Best Performance Award for 10’s through to his time in grade, Steven has been an outstanding success.  In the Best Performance profile, it is written “But, I believe his sights are set on something a lot higher in the future…”  How true those words have become.

Below are two articles, the first from the 1998/99 SSJCA Annual Report on his winning the Best Performance Award and the other a AAP news report on his selection.

Make sure your kids watch with pride as another SSJCA junior plays for his country.

SSJCA Annual Report 1998/99

Smith in a spin after Twenty20 call-up
ADRIAN WARREN
February 1, 2010

New Australian Twenty20 cricket squad member Steve Smith needs no convincing spinners are prospering in the shortest form of the game.

An emerging leg-spinner and big-hitting middle order batsman, 20-year-old Smith was named in the Australian squad for Friday’s MCG clash with T20 world champions Pakistan.

A key member of the NSW team that won the inaugural T20 Champions League title in India last October, Smith boasts a far better bowling record in that form of the game than he does in four-day cricket.

Some traditionalists feared spinners would have little part to play in the boundary-conscious T20 format, but Smith and other tweakers have thrived in the quick fire version of the game.

He is still learning his craft in first-class cricket, where he is taking a wicket every 17 overs at a cost of 70 apiece and conceding four runs an over.

Conversely he boasts a T2O average of 13.50 and strike rate of 11.5 per victim and a very respectable economy rate of 7.01.

“I think there’s a big part in Twenty20 cricket for spin bowling,” Smith told reporters at the SCG, following the Blues’ 169-run Sheffield Shield loss to Queensland on Monday.

“They (batsmen) are going pretty hard at it all the time, they’ve got to make their own pace with the ball so if you get it up there and get it to turn a little bit it’s pretty hard to hit, so it’s a chance to take wickets all the time.”

Despite his success in Twenty20, Smith stressed it wasn’t his favourite form of the game.

“I don’t think so, I really like the four-day format and I obviously want to play Test cricket one day,” Smith said.

“I do enjoy playing Twenty20 cricket, it’s a great time and it’s a whole lot of fun for four hours.

“It’s pretty exciting to get out there and swing as hard as you can and bowl a few balls where they are trying to swing as hard as they can as well.”

Although shocked to hear of his elevation to the Australian T20 squad, Smith said he had hoped to break into the national team sometime this year.

He described as “surreal” the last month, during which he had been on standby for Nathan Hauritz for two Tests and had a session with spin legend Shane Warne.

© 2010 AAP