Media Reviews
The best sports book I have ever read - John Richardson, BBC News 24This book is absolutely fascinating. I don't think I'll read another book like this all year - Eleanor Oldroyd, BBC Radio FiveLiveA great read - Jamie Reid, BBC Radio KentIt's such an honest book - Gabby Logan, BBC Radio FiveLiveA page-turning tale of wasted talent. Smith's book shocks. It is no exaggeration to say that cricket has never seen its like. This is a riveting, if often depressing, story. And if the telling might have been better, it is still damn worth reading - Steve James, Sunday TelegraphOf the two most recent cricket books to land on our desk, Paul Smith's is irrefutably more interesting - oh yes! - than John Major's. The former PM is still, metaphorically, tucking his shirt inside his underpants, while the ex-Warwickshire fast bowler has made a noble effort to tattoo his heart on his once-strong right arm. Smith's book is much like his bowling was in the early 1990s; erratic, dangerous and rarely dull. It's peppered with such idiosyncratic gems that it's hard to put down. The early Smith was happy, ebullient, daring and innocent: the tarnished Smith hit the depths of homelessness, drug dependency and banishment from his sport, mostly because he was unable to cope with the attention his gifts delivered to him. At least he is honest enough to address the fall and, on occasion, his is an hilarious, acutely observed account of both good and bad times. Would the cover price be wasted on finding out more about this fascinating character? Certainly not - Kevin Mitchell, The ObserverTo say that this is not a conventional cricketing autobiography would be something of an understatement - the standard memoir has a lower sub-machine gun count...there are lots of plums to pull out...a worthy read from a publishing house who are starting to demonstrate a good line in unusual cricket books. Smith has worked hard to sort himself out and deserves support in the good work he is doing - Andrew Baker, Daily TelegraphThe only ordinary thing about Smith is his name and he has just written an outrageous autobiography, Wasted?, which is compelling reading. It is shocking, maddening, scatological and - no pun intended - disjointed. It is not so much kiss and tell as kiss, have casual sex, get stoned, drunk, divorced, unemployed, homeless, penniless and tell; and it would make Dorian Gray blush. But in recent years this most dissolute of sportsmen has proved that he is also a decent human being. Smith has found redemption by using cricket to transform the lives of homeless, hopeless youngsters in Los Angeles and working for the Prince's Trust in Birmingham - Paul Weaver, The GuardianIn his book Smith questions the attitude of the management at Warwickshire at the time and highlights the hypocrisy of cricket's stance on the issue of drugs. His book has been banned from the shop at Edgbaston, which hardly suggests the dawning of a new age of enlightenment at Warwickshire or any new willingness on the part of his former employers to acknowledge its responsibilities to a talented but volatile generation of cricketers. But Paul Smith would like you to know that he is alive and well, on the verge of becoming a father for the fourth time and turning his life right around - Andrew Longmore, Sunday TimesWasted? is a rare insight into the trappings of fame, the inadequacies of the authority's handling of drugs - but moreover one man's mission to transform his life. It is this constant reflection of the past and comparison to his present life now which makes this book so different. So often, autobiographies are gushingly sentimental, reminiscing about past glories with rose-tinted spectacles. Smith is understandably misty-eyed - a factor not helped by the drugs, of course - but there is a refreshing honesty to his words. Besides his rocky relationships, perhaps the most interesting section of the book is the time he spent in America. Financially ruined and often homeless, he wenIt is fair to say there is nothing else quite like Wasted? on the nation's bookshelves - Peter May, Editor, Cricket 365 Review for Wasted?: NO ORDINARY CRICKET AUTOBIOGRAPHY It doesn't take long to realise Wasted is no ordinary cricket autobiographyMost have a cover star who looks like a vicar or middle manager, not a rock star; most have a foreword by Dickie Bird, or John Major, or Henry Blofeld, rather than the creator of Viz.And while there are doubtless hundreds of cricket books with a chapter called 'Compton', I'll wager most of the others refer to Denis rather than downtown LA.But Paul Smith was no ordinary cricketer; a thrilling strokemaker and genuinely rapid - if erratic - bowler, the Newcastle-born all-rounder was a key component of the successful Warwickshire side of the late 80s and early 90s.But that success proved a double-edged sword for Smith, as success opened numerous doors marked 'temptation'.His revelation upon retiring that he had taken recreational drugs throughout much of his professional career caused a storm that would ultimately cost Smith his livelihood, his marriage, his children and his home.Certainly the ECB's decision to ban a retired player for two years smacked of embarrassed face-saving, but Smith is occasionally guilty of presenting himself as an innocent victim in his own story. He certainly devotes several pages to suggesting others got off far lighter than he did.But generally, there is a refreshing honesty to Smith's tale and - unlike any number of Ashes 2005 winners - his is a story worth hearing.The talk of carousing with the likes of Michael Hutchence and George Best may be entertaining, but they clearly come from a different time - a different man almost.This book hits hardest when detailing Smith's darker moments, the homelessness, the dressing-room conversations he says appeared to be about me .Smith talks of returning to Birmingham after a Sunday game at Kent and being asked whether Warwickshire had won; he couldn't remember.The usual dressing-room anecdotes are present and correct, but more often than not followed by a stinging barb that brings the reader sharply back to the pain and hurt that drive the story. Especially when team-mate Keith Piper - who had a long-running affair with Smith's wife - is involved.Despite this, Smith's is ultimately a story of redemption; of rebuilding a life that appeared on an inexorable downward spiral.Smith has devoted his post-playing days to using cricket as a means to help disadvantaged kids around the world. The fact he has such little contact with his own children is one of the book's most painful ironies, especially as his almost evangelical zeal for his current work rings through so strongly; his methods work, and he has undoubtedly improved the lives of countless youngsters in some of the world's toughest places.Smith also dismisses the claims of those who suggest he failed to fulfil his talent. He points to seven trophies as justification but - as his own choice of title suggests - the question is a valid one.Certainly, a player with his ability (he once scored over 1,500 first-class runs in a season as an opening batsman) should have ended with better than a batting average in the mid-20s and a bowling average in the mid-30s, regardless of selectorial whims or coaching incompetence.They are disappointingly run-of-the-mill figures for such an exciting cricketer - the sport's first bimbo as Warwickshire captain Dermot Reeve put it.As injuries took their toll, Smith was forced more and more to pick his moments to excel. He describes himself as an 'impact player'; a less charitable description might be bits-and-pieces player.Wasted? is a cut above the average Freddie Flintoff biography (the sheer number of which in existence Smith dryly mocks in his introduction), and is one of the best rise-and-fall-and-rise-again stories you'll ever read.Dave Tickner, Sporting Life
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