| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | William Conrad Francis Smeed | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 26 October 2001 Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Right-arm off break | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | Batsman | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 2020–present | Somerset (squad no. 23) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 2021–present | Birmingham Phoenix | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 2022–present | Quetta Gladiators | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 2023 | St Kitts & Nevis Patriots | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 2024 | MI Emirates | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Only List A | 14 July 2022 England Lions v South Africa | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Twenty20 debut | 11 September 2020 Somerset v Worcestershire | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
Source: Cricinfo, 24 January 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
William Conrad Francis Smeed (born 26 October 2001) is an English cricketer.[1] He made his Twenty20 debut on 11 September 2020, for Somerset in the 2020 T20 Blast.[2] On 10 August 2022 he became the first player to score a century in The Hundred (101* from 50 balls) for Birmingham Phoenix vs Southern Brave.[3]
In November 2022, Smeed announced he was to give up red ball cricket to focus solely on the shorter forms of the game.[4]
Coming at such an early stage of his career, at the age of 21, some have seen the decision as being indicative of the decline of red ball cricket. Barney Ronay, in The Guardian, noted that Smeed “…who will make a wonderful living from being able to polo mallet sixes into the stands, has retired from red ball cricket having never played a game of red ball cricket, because, frankly, only one of these things looks like the future.”[5]
Smeed was a prep school pupil at Millfield School and played rugby, football, hockey, tennis and competed in the hurdles, as well as playing cricket. From ages 13 to 18 Smeed was educated at independent school King's College, Taunton in Somerset, where he was a part of their cricket programme. He studied maths, further maths, chemistry and physics to A Level, achieving an A* in each subject.[6] He is studying an undergraduate Open University degree in maths and economics.[7]
In April 2022, he was bought by the Birmingham Phoenix for the 2022 season of The Hundred.[8] He made his List A debut on 14 July 2022, for the England Lions during South Africa's tour of England.[9]