Fame, drugs and rehabilitation

He resembles the rock star, one senses, he always wanted to be - and at 43 he is almost old enough to be one. The only ordinary thing about Smith is his name and he has just written an outrageous autobiography, Wasted?, which is at once badly written and compelling reading. It is shocking, maddening, scatological and - no pun intended - disjointed. It is not so much kiss and tell as kiss, have casual sex, get stoned, drunk, divorced, unemployed, homeless, and tell; and it would make Dorian Gray blush

Whisper it softly around Birmingham; button your lip in the corridors of Channel 4 - Dermot Reeve is rebuilding his life. Thus far, the most successful captain Warwickshire ever had and, some would say, the most irritating commentator C4 ever engaged is keeping to the shady side of the street for fear of recognition. By the end of this summer the former England all-rounder may be ready to declare his complete recovery from cocaine addiction and his desire to get back into the professional game. He has already taken his first steps by agreeing to write a monthly column in Spin magazine.