Ed Smith credits Waugh for new-found steel

England's new recruit, Ed Smith, has credited his excellent form this season to Australia's captain, Steve Waugh, who played for Kent for the last six weeks of the 2002 season.

"I think watching Steve Waugh from the other end last season definitely helped me," said Smith. "We batted together. He was out of nick until the last innings when he scored a hundred - which led to him having an amazing spell back in Australian domestic cricket. But what he taught me, through me watching rather than listening to him, was bringing a positive mental attitude to every ball."

"I scored a hundred in each innings against Nottinghamshire at Maidstone recently," said Smith. "The test for me was going out after the first one and finding that extra bit of hunger to get the second. The important thing for me is keeping that hunger. I have been mad at myself for not having made my case more strongly in the past, and a little bit of that anger is now manifesting itself."

"This season I have been batting with those five years of frustration in me," added Smith. "I know I could have been better, freer, more positive." He was certainly a carefree strokemaker in his early days, as demonstrated by a century on his first-class debut for Cambridge against Glamorgan. But eventually, being asked to open the innings took its toll on Smith's approach. "I found the demands of opening the batting curbed my natural inclination to hit the ball and I was more inhibited in my strokeplay."

In 2000 Smith moved down the order to No. 3, and has profited from some minor adjustments to his game. "I have not started playing differently - even if perhaps I am now more prepared to play bigger shots, which is helping me to convert fifties into hundreds. Last summer I had a string of fifties. I was in great nick, but there were only two hundreds. But now I am definitely playing more freely."