PRIMED UP: CD assistant coach Ben Smith isn't wasting time getting into his job. PHOTO/Warren Buckland
BEN SMITH is getting his eye in just fine, as it were, and is already liking what he sees.
No, not the swashbuckling one who is opening the batting for the Central Districts Stags now but the older model who arrived here at the turn of the 21st Century.
The 44-year-old Englishman from Leicestershire arrived more than a week ago and is already into the fray as Stags assistant coach to help with the McDonald's Super Smash Twenty20 campaign starting on Sunday at Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, at 2pm against Canterbury Kings.
A top-order batsman as well and an occasional right-arm medium pacer in his heyday, Smith says CD approached him for a three-month stint.
"Where the role goes and how CD are looking to develop a role within the association is their decision and how they do that.
"It came at a good time for me and it's something I've already enjoyed in my first 10 days of my trip."
Smith had a 14-year stint as a Leicestershire player, before representing Worcestershire for a decade.
He coached Leicestershire for four years and Worcestershire for two.
The former Central Hawke's Bay cricketer was an overseas import for the premier club side from 1997-98.
In those days in England players were contracted to play from April to September and for the following six months they were allowed to work.
"It was a good fun. I enjoyed it. I had great time and met some good people and that maybe put me on the map for New Zealand with what happened next with Central Districts Cricket," says the bloke who was 25 and yearned for some overseas experience.
A grinning Smith reveals he lived in Waipawa, which was a culture shock pertaining to the town's size but the genial nature of the people and the relaxed lifestyle left a lasting impression.
"Once my fiancee and I had got used to the slow tempo of life we started to settle in and enjoy it from there in."
He represented the Stags from 2000-2002, winning the then one-day Shell Cup in 2000-01 to earn the right to compete in Perth against Australia (Western Australia), India (Mumbai) and South Africa (Natal) district champions. The hosts won that title.
Former Black Caps spinner Dipak Patel was CD coach at the turn of the century so, as a former Worcestershire player, he was able to establish a rapport with the English county club to secure Smith.
It helped that Patel also knew Smith's Leceistershire coach, Jack Birkenshaw, who notified Smith of the opportunity to play first-class cricket for CD.
"Dipak understands I had a season in the district in club cricket a couple of years ago and would I be interested.
"The opportunity to come back was something I didn't really want to miss so the wife and I travelled over the next two years on the bounce."
He played 19 matches during the two summers, including 33 innings.
His highest score was an unbeaten 201 at a time when Black Cap Martin Crowe was in the mix.
In one season he scored 900-odd runs out of the 1472, averaging 49.06, including four centuries and 10 half tons.
"Martin Crowe's the top, then there's myself and then the other Ben Smith," he says of the current 25-year-old Stags opening batsman who last summer took his tally to 1449 runs.
The evolution of cricketers from his era to the age of professionalism now is what strikes him most.
"The players have become coachable with guidance and development of their own games."
That, he feels, is owing to New Zealand Cricket's emergence as a global force, especially in the white-ball format and, more recently, in the test arena.
Looking from outside, he suspects the financial benefits in New Zealand cricket are greater now, which in turn is a catalyst in yielding pedigree players and coaches.
"Cricket is your life and it can be your livelihood now."
In his time players had other professions, such as accountancy, real estate, finance and teaching, and the game was something they were passionate about.
"Now your passion and desire to earn a living and live a life around a sport you love is a reality."
Smith, who retired in 2010, says when he played for Worcestershire for several years it was "still a bit hit and giggle" and the IPL was perhaps in its gestation phase.
"I don't think it was taken quite seriously as it is now," he says.
However, he says there were signs in his time that it was going to be a good revenue stream for associations and its impending emergence into the international arena.
In his discussion with Malan it became transparent how the South African has brought structure to CD for a distinctive vision and pathway to the future.
"He's got a very good team around him, from my initial helicopter view, of the medical staff, his manager and obviously with me coming in as an extra pair of hands and voice and opinion so, hopefully, that'll marry in nicely," says Smith.
From the time his mother, who used to make tea at games, was pushing him in a stroller to the club matches of father Kevin (a retired 75-year-old agronomist now) Smith had developed an affinity with the summer code.
When the family was in Japan, his teacher had started a cricket team at primary school.
After he played for age-group teams in Lecestershire where at 15 he decided to give up tennis for cricket.
"I chose cricket with a little bit of push in the right direction from my father," says Smith, who two summers later played for the Leceistershire 2nd XI and was pushing for a contract.
He didn't go on to realise his dreams of representing England, something he puts down to timing.
"When England needed players I wasn't necessarily on top of my game but when England was doing well I was doing well," he says, feeling if he was in a better team his progression would have had more stability.
On reflection, he suspects if he could bowl he may have been more marketable.
"I wasn't that successful in first-class cricket until I was about 26, about the time I came here . . . ," he says, seeing himself as a late bloomer in understanding his own game.
His wife, Lisa, and their daughter, Ruby, 11, will arrive here for the Christmas holidays next month.