Top 5 England cricketers who were born in South Africa

#4 Robin Smith

Robin Smith came to England and went on to play 62 Tests for the national team

Robin Smith is one of the South African-born English players who went on to become on of the mainstays in the English team. Smith made his debut for England in the year 1988 and went on to play 62 Test matches for the country after being born in Durban, South Africa. The former batsman could not qualify to play for the South African team due to the apartheid regime in the nation and hence moved to England as he had an English father.

The player was known for his tirade of shots against fast bowling and was one of the first South African-born cricketers to have emerged as England’s national team players in international cricket. Smith was known for his hook and cut but is also known to have lost much of his aplomb when the bowling became slow.

Smith went on to play his final series in South Africa, after which he was dropped from the team even though he did not have the worst series. The cricketer went on to make 4236 runs from the 62 Tests he featured in at an average of just above 43.