If Australia’s former prime minister John Howard is jealous of the new man Kevin Rudd for having the Gabba in his Brisbane electorate, he must be equally envious of the new foreign minister. Stephen Smith’s electorate includes the WACA, and in the Weekend Australian Mike Coward looks at Australia’s newest high-profile cricket tragic.

For Smith, the WACA Ground is a very special place and flooded with memories of the feats of cricketers he has long admired, none more than his hero Graham "Garth" McKenzie. He was 12 when first taken to the ground by his grandfather for the Sheffield Shield match between Western Australia and South Australia in 1967-68. The previous year, his family had moved from Narrogin in the south of the state to Perth and his first sighting of some of the great names of Australian cricket is one of his most treasured memories. He carried with him not a modest sheet of paper but the book, the Rothmans Book of Ashes Cricket 1946-1963 edited by Ted Dexter, he had been awarded as dux of Grade VII at Christian Brothers School at Highgate. He was bursting with excitement and somehow hoped he could secure a signature or two.