Greg Smith announces retirement from professional career

Former England U19 cricketer, Greg Smith has announced his retirement from professional cricket in order to pursue another career. Smith, was born and initiated his cricket career in Leicestershire, moved to Nottinghamshire in 2015 and represented them in this season as well. The 28-year-old has featured in 105 first-class matches and 48 matches each in List A and T20 formats including 4 FC games in this season before calling it time on Thursday.

Greg featured in 71 FC games, 39 List A games and 30 in T20s for Leicestershire from 2008 to 2014 before joining Nottinghamshire as Leicester failed to even one game in two county season when in division two. He represented Nottinghamshire in 41 games across formats in the 3 seasons.

“I’d like to thank everyone associated with Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club for making it such an enjoyable few years,” said Smith announcing his retirement from cricket. “It feels like the right time for me to move on from cricket. I’ll leave the game having met some incredible people and with some amazing memories. I’m sure, with the quality within the current squad, Nottinghamshire will continue to enjoy plenty of success in the years to come.” he added.

Sad to see Greg leave

Reflecting on Greg’s decision, Nottinghamshire’s Director of Cricket, Mick Newell, said: “It’s sad to see Greg leave the Club, but he’s found it a struggle to get into the First Team this season and we respect that he now considers he is ready to begin a new chapter in his life.”

“He has played some important innings in his time with us, particularly in white ball cricket. We wish him every success in whatever he chooses to do next,” Mick added.

In 2008, Smith was part of the England U19 team led by Tom Westley against the touring New Zealand U19 side. He played along with likes of Alex Hales, James Taylor and Liam Dawson and scored 157 on his Youth Test debut and followed it with an unbeaten 150 in the next game. Thus he became the first player and the only till date to score 150+ in consecutive innings in Youth Test cricket.

He featured in the 5-match One-Day series as well in which he aggregated 106 runs in 4 innings with the best score of 81. New Zealand U19 was led by Kane Williamson with players namely Jimmy Neesham and Doug Bracewell, who went on to feature in International cricket.