I grew up in NZ in the 70's/80's, and I'd take Smith as my keeper every time. It may be some of the earlier keepers like Wadsworth or Mooney were better keepers, but having never seen them play I can't really choose them. Smith hardly missed a chance and he scored some pretty handy runs. I agree he's not as good a batsman as McCullum but in a lower order with some or all of Reid/Cairns/Hadlee/Vettori likely to be selected, I'd happily give up 10 runs per innings to have him behind the sticks.
My NZ team :
Dempster
Turner
Sutcliffe
Crowe
Donnelly
Reid
Hadlee
Vettori
Smith (wk)
Bond
Cowie
Second xi :
Richardson
Wright
Jones
Fleming
Taylor R
McCullum (wk)
Cairns
Taylor B
Nash
Collinge
Boock
Fair to say the spin stocks aren't too impressive....
My NZ team :
Dempster
Turner
Sutcliffe
Crowe
Donnelly
Reid
Hadlee
Vettori
Smith (wk)
Bond
Cowie
Second xi :
Richardson
Wright
Jones
Fleming
Taylor R
McCullum (wk)
Cairns
Taylor B
Nash
Collinge
Boock
Fair to say the spin stocks aren't too impressive....