Will Smeed hit a record-breaking ton in the Hundred
(Picture: Getty Images)On a number of levels, it felt fitting that Will Smeed scored the Hundred’s first hundred, for Birmingham Phoenix last night.
The Hundred did not find Smeed. He was developed by Somerset, for whom he made 16 T20 appearances before his late call-up as a Hundred replacement last year.
Smeed’s impact on the Hundred was instant, smashing 146 runs from 79 balls in his first three matches. He has kept going; after his belligerent 50-ball hundred last night, only six men have more runs in the Hundred than him. No man who has faced 125 balls or scored even 75 runs in the competition with a strike-rate as high as his 178.
Rightly or wrongly, thanks to a streamlined schedule and every game being fully broadcast on TV (some on the BBC), the Hundred provides its players with greater exposure than the Blast. Smeed has benefited from this as much as any Hundred player.
Last year’s performances earned him a contract in the Pakistan Super League, where he made 97 from 62 balls and 99 from 60 in his first four innings for Quetta Gladiators, who will be keen to secure his services once more.
They are not alone. Reliance, who own Mumbai Indians (among the T20 scene’s sharpest talent-spotters), have already signed him up for their team, MI Emirates, in the new UAE T20 competition.
That could lead to an IPL deal with MI, or another franchise. Smeed, whose mother has Indian heritage, is of interest to IPL teams for both sporting and marketing reasons.
Smeed’s talents are not limited to the cricket field. At school in Taunton he was a superb rugby player, hurdler and swimmer, picked up four A*s at A-Levels and is now doing a degree in Maths and Economics at the Open University.
It has felt like cricket’s sands have shifted five years in just the last five weeks.
Ben Stokes retired from ODIs, firing a warning about their future relevance. South Africa pulled out of ODIs in Australia to prioritise their new T20 tournament, which takes place at the same time as the UAE’s. IPL teams’ parents companies have gobbled up teams in both.
This week, Trent Boult gave up his New Zealand contract at 33 to make the schedule work better for him; a bit of poorly-paid international cricket, a few more well-paid franchise gigs.
In an English context, much is uncertain about the future structure of the domestic game. But one thing does seem guaranteed: the Hundred retaining a chunky window in the middle of summer.
Smeed is the English test case for this inexorable change. He is yet to play a 50-over game for Somerset (although he played two for England Lions last month, making 90 off 56 balls then a golden duck against South Africa), let alone a first-class match, although he says he wants to do so.
With England T20 caps surely imminent, it will be a surprise if he can find time to face a red ball.
