In his latest book, which explores philosophical issues around sport, Ed Smith argues that thinking too much can be bad for sportsmen. The best players are often those who do not let analysis get in the way of instinct. A Wayne Rooney or a Kevin Pietersen can unleash their creativity, Smith says, because they still play primarily for fun, as they did when they were children. Setbacks are shrugged off, not brooded over.

No one could accuse the Middlesex captain of thinking too little. Unlike most sportsmen, he proudly possesses what Denis Healey would call a “hinterland”. The antique Danish rosewood bookcases in his Bayswater flat are packed not with cricket books - there are only four Wisdens, for a start - but with works by Iris Murdoch and Evelyn Waugh, a treatise on Wagner, economics textbooks.

He has drawn on a wide range of material for his book, What Sport Tells Us About Life, a collection of essays that explain the often counterintuitive facts behind sporting clichés. What makes a champion? When is cheating really cheating? Do certain sports have a natural home?

He began writing it late in 2004 as a way of coming to terms with rejection by England for that winter's tour despite ending the county season with three consecutive hundreds. The book was inspired in part by a series of interviews he did for Radio 3 with people in the performing arts and the forces that drive them.

With its completion, Smith feels a catharsis. “It is like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” he said. “I feel amazing freedom now that I have written this.” He thinks that it could have the same effect on his cricket as appearing on Strictly Come Dancing had for Mark Ramprakash.

Understandably for someone who is both ambitious and fascinated by statistics, Smith is determined to regain his place in the England team after playing three Test matches in 2003. “I want to set the record straight,” he said. “I didn't get enough of a run. I made 64 in my first Test innings [against South Africa] and then played the next two matches on bad pitches and was wrongly given out at the Oval. It is a terrible sample size on which to make a judgment.”

It sounds big-headed but is not meant to be. Smith views cricket and his career with cold logic. If he can channel that drive with the Zen-like calmness of the new Ramprakash - and not have to don sequinned trousers to do so - he may yet achieve the freedom from thinking so much that he needs to thrive.

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