Jury no longer out on Steve Smith Triumphant: Steve Smith celebrates a ton in Perth. The notion that Steve Smith might've considered cricket the centre of his universe was shattered beyond repair at the Allan Border Medal when his teammates recalled how, during the last tour of India, he spent hours on the internet learning legal terms. Smith was not studying to become a lawyer but his girlfriend Dani Willis is and just as she'd learned the intricacies of a sport she'd previously had no special interest in, he set about mastering such terms as affidavit, appellant, estoppel and obiter dictum out of a fundamental respect for his partner and the demanding career she's pursuing. "I try and educate him and Steve tries to educate me on his art," said Willis, a former competitive swimmer. The boys were talking about it on Monday how he was in India last year and going through an online law dictionary and writing down legal definitions. When I visited him I found 10 A4 pages of the notes he'd taken and I thought, 'Good work, Steve'. Steve Smith with partner Dani Willis. So he makes the effort to learn about what I'm doing so when I come home and we talk about what I'd learned he has a basic understanding of it. Willis said the notes meant a lot because at a time when Smith had been earmarked as a potential Test captain, he could've focused on establishing himself in the Cricket Australia system. His scrawled notes re-enforced to Willis that she mattered at a time when he's living his dream. "He is one of the most caring individuals I've come across in my life," she said. He makes you feel very special whether it be me or his friends he puts us before himself. Smith with Willis over the Christmas break. Steve is a very family-orientated person who appreciates the good values he was raised with. Smith is living his childhood dream. Since he was a talented kid at Sutherland he was identified as a "special" talent and while other kids plotted careers in commerce or plumbing, he committed his entire being to earning a baggy green Test cap. In that quest he had hit, bowled and caught thousands of cricket balls and if any parent needed an example of hard work being rewarded, Smith ought to be their poster boy. "It's a privileged position, playing for Australia was a childhood dream of mine ... I sort of pinch myself sometimes to prove it's really happened," he said. However, his rise and rise wasn't easy and Smith acknowledges Willis's support was vital during his fight to return to the Australian team after he was axed because the selectors thought he hadn't shown enough. "Incredible," he said. Dani's support has been brilliant. She didn't know much about cricket when we met but she's picked it up quite quickly. It's nice to be able to go home, relax and talk about things with someone special. After showing glimpses of what he could be in his early tastes of Test cricket, Smith established himself as one of the players Cricket Australia could plan to build its future around when he scored two centuries in Australia's whitewash of England. While his previous flamboyance - he was nicknamed "Reckless" when he first played for NSW because he'd barge into places on the cricket field where angels feared to tread - made him an exciting player to the youngsters, the recent poise he displayed against the English excited the purists. "I think people may've realised I can grow and be a part of the Australian team," Smith said of his role in the Ashes triumph. I felt under a bit of pressure before the Perth Test and to get a hundred when we were in trouble was pleasing. To then back it up in similar circumstances at Sydney gave me the belief I belonged and can be successful at Test level. The biggest improvement was my shot selection and my patience. The way I left [deliveries] outside of off stump throughout this series was perhaps the best I have ever left. I wait for the bowlers to get in my areas before I cashed in and I guess that's what allowed me to have a successful summer. Smith, who scored his first Test century by belting part-time English bowler Jonathan Trott for six when he was on 94 at The Oval in London during the mid-year Ashes series, proved he could (and would) still play with a touch of dash and daring. I said to [batting partner Brad Haddin] if it's in my slot what do you think about me hitting him back over his head? Smith recalled. Brad said if it's there to have a clear mind. The first ball was there and I put it away. While Smith was earmarked as a future international from his days with Sutherland - captaining first grade as a teenager; courted by England (through his mother) to pledge his allegiance at 17 to the Three Lions; starring for NSW before he seemed ready to shave and then being picked for Australia when he was still finding his game - he'd needed to overcome challenges. "I think I was drafted into the Test side when I was probably not quite up to it at that time and it made me look at my game, go away and get to the level where I wanted to be," he said. It was about tightening up my technique, obtaining that patience I'd developed over the last 18 months and playing the right shots to the right balls. Getting dropped does hurt your confidence but it happens for a reason ... you have to get over it as quickly as you can and then find a level where you feel comfortable and I think it was a wake-up call that I needed. It's tough but it asks questions of your character and how quickly you can respond so you can get back; make the hard yards to improve. It was satisfying for me to fight my way back into the side. Now he's back and earmarked as a possible Test captain, but the incumbent Michael Clarke warned such talk could harm Smith's - and any cricketer's - development. "I won't be talking about who the next captain will be," Clarke said. When I look back on my career I found it exceptionally hard when I was labelled as the person to take over from Ricky Ponting. I didn't feel comfortable because all I wanted to do was play for Australia but that expectation [to captain] was put on me from a very young age. Steve Smith, like all the young players I've seen over the last few years, has been given an opportunity and he's taking it. He's scored a couple of hundreds which is exciting and he's a hard worker. To make it to the top and stay there requires a lot of hard work. Smith has proven he has the tolerance for hard work. Yet it wasn't hitting, catching and bowling thousands of balls, because he was built to do that. Instead it was his learning of the lawyer's vocabulary, proving someone else mattered even more than the success of which he'd long dreamed.