Robin Smith’s tragic unfulfilled ‘good grandad’ want days earlier than loss of life after vodka battle
Just days before his death, England cricket legend Robin Smith heartbreakingly opened up about his alcohol abuse and wish to be a “nice grandad” for his first granddaughter due to be born this week
England cricket legend Robin Smith bravely opened up about his alcohol abuse and personal demons in heartbreaking interviews just days before he died at the age of 62.
Smith’s death overnight in Australia was announced today (December 2) on BBC Radio Solent by his friend and former Hampshire team-mate Kevan James, who broke down in tears when sharing the news. Smith’s cause of death is currently unknown, but he is known to have long struggled with alcohol addiction – having drunk a bottle of vodka daily for 12 years – and health battles.
The iconic batsman of the ’80s and ’90s played the first of his 62 test matches for England against the West Indies in 1988 and finished his international career in 1996, scoring 4,236 runs and a high score of 175 with an impressive batting average of 43.67. He also played 71 ODIs between 1988 and 1996.
Smith, nicknamed ‘The Judge’ due to his combed back, curly hair, played his entire county cricket career with Hampshire, and had travelled down under to catch up with old England pals Graham Gooch, David Gower and Allan Lamb during the first Ashes test match in Perth last week. He recalled how they joked: “Jeez, Judgie, you’re back from the dead.”
Spending time there always reminded him of his close friend and Australian icon Shane Warne, who tragically died from a heart attack in Thailand in 2022. Smith was one of the last people Warne called, hours before he died.
South Africa-born Smith battled alcohol abuse, where he was said to have drunk a whole bottle of vodka every day for 12 years, which was exacerbated by depression since his playing career finished. During his toughest moment, doctors told his loved ones he might only have two days to live when he was hospitalised for four months.
Smith suffered many relapses, including after the passing of his father just a few months ago, who he had lived with during the pandemic after his mum had died. He bravely opened up about his ordeal in an interview with The Times.
Full of hope for the future, among his heartbreaking final public words was a now devastating sentence. “I’ve got my first granddaughter arriving on December 5 and I would really love to be a nice grandfather,” he said.
Speaking on his drinking problems and brush with death, he said: “I thought I had fully recovered. Then having seen dad in the state he was, and living on my own, I got back into my… well, you know, once an alcoholic always an alcoholic. You always battle to keep away from it. It’s not difficult to go back on the alcohol.
“After that week where I started drinking again, I saw the professor who had spoken to my family about me not necessarily making it.
“I told him I’d let myself down. He said, ‘If you’ve been drinking again, you must be a cat with nine lives. Because many other people wouldn’t have survived this.’ I’m on my last warning, I know.”
After he was sent home from hospital, sufficiently out of danger but his organs still ravaged, he stayed with his son, Harrison, and went on a painstaking rehabilitation process. Many people including his long-suffering elder brother Chris, who Smith called “my biggest supporter but also my biggest critic”, helped him in his recovery.
Smith struggled to eat but Harrison’s wife, Yen, who is Vietnamese, plied him with nutritious food. He had to learn to walk again. First covering 10 metres before increasing the distance over time. Six months on, he was well enough to move into low-cost housing near his ageing father John, who had gone into a care home during Smith’s absence.
“Whenever I left, he’d say, ‘Rob, I love you … be good.’ I knew exactly what he meant, ‘Stay off the bloody alcohol,’ the former England star admitted.
“Then the next time I went he’d had a stroke. It was terrible. He could still hear and see, but just couldn’t communicate. I could see the anxiety in his face. That broke my heart. I got a call two weeks later to say he had comfortably passed.”
Smith revealed that he had almost taken his own life twice, including at the Rendezvous hotel at Perth’s Scarborough Beach in 2019. Explaining his situation, he said: “Cricket is like a family. You are together so much of the time. It’s difficult to adjust to normal life once that bubble bursts.
“You miss the adrenaline surge, you continue the old lifestyle and live beyond your means. If you don’t know how to reinvent yourself, that can leave you in a terrible position.”
He added in a chat with the Daily Mail: “I speak a little bit now publicly about mental health. And I was very, very close twice, within minutes, of finishing my life.
“I wish I’d spoken to my friends. I didn’t want to burden them with my problems, but I should have reached out to them. Anyone who thinks they might be a burden on their friends, they’re absolutely not. You’ve just got to be open and be yourself.”
Smith’s death was announced this morning by James, who battled through tears to say: “Oh gosh it’s been horrible unfortunately. It was happening as I was reading out some of the sports news.
“He was at the time, in the 80s and 90s, England’s best batter. He averaged 43 in Test matches and he averaged over 40 when he was dropped after the mid-nineties Test series in South Africa which is quite incredible now, isn’t it, to think a batter would be dropped averaging that many.
“He was a super player, particularly of fast bowling in an era where the West Indies had all these fast bowlers. He was one of the few England batters who stood up to them and basically gave as good as he got.”
James also spoke about his close friend’s bizarre nickname, ‘The Judge’. He said: “His hair was combed back and curly like a judge’s wig. It was weird, the first time I came across him was before I joined Hampshire. This was early 80s and Robin had just arrived from South Africa.
“I got introduced to him by this person who said ‘you will hear a lot more about this bloke, he’s England’s next best thing’. Actually, he really was. Even then, the first thing I noticed when I was shaking his hand was, ‘he looks like a judge’.”
