By Callum Dent
Graham Ford expects Graeme Smith’s professionalism and experience to have a major impact on the Surrey dressing room this season.
After signing a three-year deal at Surrey that started last year, an ankle injury limited the 33-year-old to just three LV= County Championship matches and one Yorkshire Bank 40 appearance.
However, in his first season at the Kia Oval, former Sri Lanka coach Ford will be boosted by the availability of a fully-fit Smith for the entire campaign following the ex-South Africa captain’s decision to retire from international cricket last month.
And Ford believes his skipper, who played 117 Tests, 197 one-day internationals and 33 Twenty20s for his country, will be the perfect leader for his youthful squad.
He said: “It was very much a surprise; I think he’s still right at the top of his game. It wasn’t that long ago that he made a double-century against Pakistan so obviously it is a big bonus for us. Hopefully he’ll put all his energy into Surrey cricket which would be fantastic.
“You probably can’t say enough about Graeme as a leader and a player. His Test average speaks for itself and as a leader the job he did for South Africa for a long time after taking over as a young man the way he did was really, really something special.
“He’s a much better captain now than he was in those days; he can only of learnt from it. So we get this really wise, experienced captain that knows the game inside out and has shown that he knows how to handle people and how to get the best out of them.
“For our young group to have a guy like Graeme heading them up you really couldn’t hope for better and as a coach it’s always fantastic to have a really good captain controlling the situation.”
Ford has no worries about Smith’s motivation for competing in county cricket following a glittering international career, saying: “The competitive nature that he has, once he gets into the season I’m sure he’s going to be treating every game just as seriously and competitively as he did when he was playing international cricket, which is going to set a wonderful example to the players in the dressing room.”
Emerging batsman Jason Roy insists playing alongside Smith will help him in his own development.
The 23-year-old toldecb.co.uk: “You can learn endless amounts because just the way he goes about his cricket, not just on the field but the way he goes about it off the field, his professionalism, the way he deals with his social life and it’s endless.
“I got a little bit from him [last season], spent some time with him, saw him in Cape Town; he’s just a really nice guy to be around.”
Surrey start their 2014 season in earnest tomorrow at home to Glamorgan in the LV= County Championship.