Jamie Smith

Jamie Luke Smith, a young aspiring wicketkeeper-batsman from Surrey, is a hard-hitting batsman who rose through the ranks of age-group cricket and currently plays for the Surrey 2nd XI side. Having come into a side with 5 specialist keepers, not to mention coach Alec Stewart, Smith has an unusual amount of competition amongst his fellow glovemen.

As regular wicketkeepers Ben Foakes and Ollie Pope were unable to join the pre-season tour to Dubai in July 2018 because of commitments with ECB programmes, Smith was called up to provide more wicketkeeping backup with captain Rory Burns being the only other specialist keeper in the squad. The teenager was granted leave from his high school to represent his county in the ten-day tour, with two List A games against Glamorgan, and one game each with Lancashire and United Arab Emirates XI.

Smith also represents Sutton Cricket Club in the Travelbag Surrey Championship, and has trained with the professional squad in the build-up to the tour, using the world-class facilities that have been in place at the Kia Oval since the end of February. Surrey Academy Director, Gareth Townsend, said 'Jamie’s progressing well and we’ve got no fears at all as to his ability to join the professional squad for this tour – it’s a great opportunity to show what he can do. With 15 Surrey developed players already in the professional squad, we all hope that Jamie can become the latest player to graduate from the Academy and earn full professional honours.”

Having graduated with distinction, Smith now moves on to the next level of cricket and has enough competition to keep him on his toes. Given that he can manage the expectations and ascend beyond the rest of the wicketkeepers in the squad, he can go on to become Surrey's first-choice. It is, however, too early to gauge his performances, and it remains to be seen if he can establish himself on the tour to the UAE.

By Rishi Roy
As of July 2018