Gloucestershire and former Sussex cricketer Tom Smith says he owes Eastbourne 'a huge amount of credit'

The 33-year-old has recently been voted Gloucestershire’s Supporters Player of the Year after another incredible season in the Vitality Blast where he was integral to them getting to finals day.

And the local lad wanted to thank the Saffrons club for the part they played in developing him into the player he is today.

Dealing with grief and bringing up a young family as a single dad - Tom Smith's story

Smith started at Eastbourne at a very young age, working his way up the age groups before securing a first team place.

During this time he also worked his way through the Sussex ranks but it never worked and after spells at Surrey and Middlesex he found his feet at Gloucestershire.

But it all comes back to Eastbourne for Tom. He said: “I owe Eastbourne a huge amount of credit for my career in cricket.

“Identifying me from a young age and supporting me through mens cricket and perhaps playing me in sides where I maybe didn’t warrant my place.

“They allowed me to develop in the first team when perhaps other players could have bowled but they had a long term vision and could see I had potential to have a career in the game.

“My first two seasons in the first team we nearly got relegated and if it wasn’t for the legend Paul Hacker bowling all day the other end, we probably would have done. That was all part of the club allowing myself, Ollie Rayner, Ben Brown and Mark Tomsett to cut our teeth in premier league cricket.”

And he says everyone at the club played a part in his career but he picked our four people in particular.

He thanked the late Peter Bibby for his belief and support in my early years at the club and added: “Mark Trubshaw for captaining me in my first few seasons in men’s cricket and being a fantastic role model on the field.

“Paul Hacker for giving me my first team debut and allowing me to develop and finally Jon Lord for captaining five professionals in his side and dealing with all our emotions and ambitions in the game. He did an amazing job of captaining us all.”

And the Saffrons ground is very special to the left-arm spinner.

He said: “It’s the most important cricket ground to me, from being a boy watching county week with my Dad, to developing my game there and finally being able to play for Gloucestershire in a professional game was incredible. It will always have a special place in my family’s heart.”

And he tries to stay in touch and added: “I always hear from Jon Purdey if he needs any cricket equipment!”

Tom always wanted to play cricket for a living from an early age but it became a reality when he was 16.

He said: “From a very early age that was the dream, I always played a number of sports and my cricketing dream probably didn’t feel like a reality till I was age 16-17 when I got onto the Sussex academy.”

And he made his debut before he signed professionally.

He said: “To make my debut the year before I got signed was huge, I was still on the academy and they called me up to play at Durham in a pro40 game which was a huge honor.

“When Mark Robinson gave me that first deal I couldn’t believe it, to achieve your dream of becoming a professional cricketer at a club you had watched all your childhood was amazing.

“Chris Waller was my first spin coach and mentored me for a number of years. Mark Davies in my early professional day was incredibly supportive and taught me a lot.

“I think my biggest mentor was James Kirtley, from watching him perform for Sussex and Eastbourne as a child to them share a dressing room with him and see his professionalism and dedication to being the best he can be was something I always admired.”

But it never fully worked at at Sussex. “I think it had got to the point where some decisions had to be made on the spin bowling options for Sussex, we probably had six or seven spin bowlers and there wasn’t enough cricket to go around to help us all develop,” he said.

“ I was never going to thrive in an environment where I thought every game was going to be my last whenever I got an opportunity to play. I was fortunate that Chris Adams took me on loan to Surrey and I realised that there was other opportunities out there.”

He then went on loan to Surrey and said: “I had a game on a Saturday for Eastbourne and Angus Fraser (Director of cricket for Middlesex CCC) came to watch me, which I thought was amazing that he would travel that far to scout me.

“I had a really good feeling about Middlesex and the opportunity to play with Adam Gilchrist and David Warner that year was really exciting.

“They offered me a three year deal and I knew I would have time to develop and also get some much needed game time. I had four lovely years there and met some amazing people and the opportunity to play at Lords was an absolute privilege.”

And now at Gloucestershire he has found success in the white ball game.

He said: “I feel like I have been performing consistently for a number of years in T20 and this was my year where it was talked about a lot more, I wouldn’t say I am a specialist but certainly T20 is my strongest form of cricket.

“I have tried to improve year on year and I have developed my bowling to have more variation and be less predictable which worked well this year. Also the team have been performing brilliantly over the past few years so it’s great to be contributing in a winning side.”

And how does he feel about being labelled a T20 specialist: “I think it’s an honour if someone labels me as a specialist, its means I must performing well enough in a particular format to be labelled that. I work just as hard on my red ball as I do on my white ball cricket although I play very few red ball games these days.”

So what is next for Smith. He said: “I still feel I have a few more years left in me. I really enjoyed this season and after coming out of lockdown it made me really appreciate how very fortunate I am to be a professional sportsman and be able to do a job that I love so much.

"Currently I am exploring career options post cricket, I have always been quite proactive over the years with doing work experience etc. I do love doing coaching and I have coached Gloucestershire’s young spinners for a number of seasons. I am also working on a project to provide life insurance for all the professional cricketers.

"I hope that if I explore lots of different things I will stumble onto the right career path."