Worcestershire Head Coach Alan Richardson has paid tribute to the great impact made by all-rounder Nathan Smith during his four months at Visit Worcestershire New Road.
Smith’s spell with Worcestershire has come to a premature end because of a hamstring setback and he has now flown back home to New Zealand.
But the 26-year-old has made his mark on and off the field.
He leaves as Worcestershire’s leading wicket-taker in Vitality County Championship cricket this summer with 27 scalps at an average of 21.14 from seven games.
He also scored invaluable lower order runs, including three half centuries, in his total of 214 at an average of 30.57.
In the Vitality Blast, Smith played nine matches, scoring 144 runs and picking up eight wickets at an economy rate of 8.34.
Richardson said: “Unfortunately for Nathan his time with us has now finished but he has made such a great impact.
“He has been amazing too have around both on and off the field. We’ve managed to find ourselves a real star in the making, someone who the members have really enjoyed watching.
“He has put in 100 per cent every game, he has completely bought into things here, the boys have loved having him on their side.
“As coaches and support staff, he has been a pleasure to work with and a pleasure to watch.
“We always knew there was a good chance he was going to be a proper three dimensional cricketer.
“There have been a couple of really crucial run outs that he has been part of, one of them being Jacob Bethell in the first game all the way back in April.
“He has made some really valuable runs down the order in red ball and white ball cricket and had a huge say in wins in games against Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire with the bat in T20 cricket as well.
“He has also been a really skilful and whole-hearted operator with the ball.
“Nathan wanted to be with us right up to the end to help us achieve what we were trying to achieve.
“Really disappointing for him, really disappointing for us and we are gutted it has come to an end but we also feel very lucky we had him for as many games and he has been able to impact on so many games and also on the lads.”
Richardson said Worcestershire were looking at the possibility of bringing in another seamer for the finale to the season.
He said: “We’ve been fairly stretched as it is so trying to get another seamer in who is going to be fit and ready to go.
“We will have to have a look to see what is out there but we are a bit thin at the moment and there are a few avenues we are looking at to see what we can do to try and strengthen.”
