Cricket scholarship reignites dream of Old Harbour’s Devoy Smith

Devoy Smith was a high school standout back in 2008 at Clarendon College where he scored three centuries in Headley Cup, the premier schoolboy cricket competition in rural Jamaica.

Smith, along with global T20 stars Andre Russell, who was his senior in high school and Rovman Powell, was among a batch of young and talented cricketers from Old Harbour with big dreams of playing the sport at the highest level.

While the world got to see the audacious brilliance of Powell and Russell, Smith remains an unknown. Perhaps a mental lapse is partly the reason that took him on a different path, but there was no denying that he had the goods to excel. After all, Smith, who registered five centuries for Old Harbour Cricket Club and three tons representing St Catherine Cricket Association, is the holder of an unbeatable record in the game here. In the 2017 SDC T20 final, he scored 120 not out for Old Harbour – albeit in a losing cause – against Junction of St Elizabeth. To this day Smith's scintillating knock makes him the first and only player to score a century in the final of the popular competition that usually involves some 200 community teams islandwide.

That blinder of an innings came after a long hiatus from the game. Fresh out of high school with five CSEC subjects under his belt, Smith went straight into the world of work, spending several years at a BPO call centre in Portmore. He had no choice then, he said, as there was very little to earn from playing local cricket, while the demands of fending for himself and assisting his poor family were great.

More responsibilities would later be placed on those stocky shoulders of his when he became a father at age 24. This saw him attempting a delicate balancing act of work and fatherhood.

But a cricket scholarship has afforded him the chance to focus more on playing the game, reigniting an old flame buried deep within. Regarding his deep desire to one day play the game at the highest level, Smith said: “it’s never too late for a shower of rain.”

“As you can see I got an opportunity at the age of 29, so that means people still see stuff in me, so I’m just making the best use of it,” he added. “So you never know.”

Fuel to this burning desire has been added when in January of 2021 Smith was granted a cricket scholarship by Keyano College in Alberta, Canada, where he's pursuing a two-year diploma programme in business administration and management while fine-tuning his game. The latter, however, has been stymied somewhat by the coronavirus pandemic, leaving the player to work-out in the indoor nets.

“It’s a great experience,” said the 30 year-old of his time so far in Canada as a student athlete. “Everything is great. I’m just hoping to make the best use of this opportunity because sometimes opportunity comes only once. So I’m just taking it with two hands.”

He now also has the benefit of an agent who negotiates professional matters on his behalf. Through his agent, Smith inked a five-month contract with Ashford Cricket Club in England after completing his first year of studies at college. To play in England was long in coming, he tells me.

“My agent is always looking for club,” Smith revealed. “I should have been in England from last year but the scholarship came up, so I took the scholarship instead of going to England.”

And since joining the semi-professional outfit that competes in the Kent Cricket League Division II, Smith is the leading runscorer for the club with 269 runs from four games. His 150 in his third outing which steered Ashford to a 92-run win over OD Cuaco is the top performance in the league so far. But that special innings was far from easy, he said, despite the expectations that he should dominate the league given his obvious talent. 

“There are a lot of professional and semi-professional players playing in the same division that I’m playing in now. The level is different, the pitches are different, the conditions are really difficult to bat in, especially now.

“Based on players past experience they are saying in the early season, in the first two months it’s really hard to bat,” said the specialist opening batter, who scored 39 and 13 in his first two outings.

Speaking of his maiden hundred in England, the right-hander said: “I was saying OK the ball wasn’t coming on as fast as how it would have come on in the Caribbean, but I tried to adjust as much as possible and use my experience and skill.”

His goal he said is to amass as many runs as possible before he returns to Canada in August.

“In my last game I played, I got about 18, so I’m looking forward to the rest of the season, hoping to finish the season with at least six centuries,” he said.

So what's his next move after school?

“The main aim is to ensure that I finish school,” he said. “Once I’m finish… you have a system in Canada that they call the post graduate work permit, so I guess I’ll be going that route. But it all depends on what the future holds.”

Smith said he will assess his options afterwards which can be anything that may include matriculating into a university to pursue higher education, as well as to freelance his cricketing skills to the highest bidder who requires his service.

While he has been adjusting his game in England, Smith must contend with adapting to his new surroundings in Alberta, a province where finding Jamaicans or other Caribbean natives are few and far between.

“The area that I’m in Fort McMurray, is a small town and you don’t have a lot of Caribbean people, so you have to affiliate yourself with other people and meet new friends,” said Smith who grew up between Bodles and North Street in Old Harbour.

The North American country doesn’t possesses a massive cricket culture and the sport is played in small pockets primarily by people from Asia and the West Indies. Based on the population and geographical size of Canada, Smith believes cricket could become popular with correct planning and structure.

“What I think they could do is try and start a development programme in most provinces if not all and see if they can develop cricket from the grassroots and get people of all different races involve. If there is any grassroots programme, you probably can count on one hand,” he told Old Harbour News.

It's a dramatic turnaround for a young man who had basically given up aspirations of playing the game internationally. Now a new opportunity beckons and he's making sure this innings count either way.

Said the man who doesn’t have a preference representing the West Indies or Canada: “After I left high school I lost total interest in the game. I was thinking about not making the national team because normally as a youngster, if you didn’t play youth cricket it’s very hard to make the transition into the national [senior] team if you never represent your country at the youth level. So that was in my mind, probably I had the wrong thought.

“But people keep telling me not to give up and to keep working hard… that I have of chance of playing for Jamaica one day and I should not give up [and] try and play some Senior Cup cricket. So I started playing Senior Cup in 2018.

“[Andre] Russell always telling me ‘don’t give up, continue working, you never know anything can happen, anything is possible’. Rovman [Powell] says the same think, ‘keep on working, you never know’.

“Cricket is my main priority, but if that doesn’t work out then I would have to go ahead and further my studies.

“I can apply for my permanent residency first and then I can also be a citizen of Canada.”

At age 30, there’s not much time either on his side to play the game “at the highest level” but he can draw inspiration from other late bloomers before him who played international cricket.

“It’s not saying pressuring myself… I’m just putting in the hard work. Once I go out on the pitch I hope to do my best. If I don’t make it I’m not going to feel disappointed. I’m not pressuring myself that much. I’m just playing my game, putting in the hard work and the result will speak for itself,” said Smith.

No-one truly knows the outcome of this journey Devoy Smith is on currently, but it’s a voyage in his mind worth dreaming of nonetheless.