SMITH'S TOUGHEST CALL
He tells why he had to go
THERE was a moment on the day after Proteas captain Graeme Smith announced his retirement when he knew that he had made the right decision.
It was the early hours of the morning and Smith was at the hospital with his 18-month-old daughter, Cadence, who had suffered severe burns during an accident involving hot water.
She was sitting on his lap and reached out a tiny hand to his Proteas badge. “Daddy,” she said. “That’s all she’s known of me really. She sees me on the TV and that was a moment where I realised I’m pretty happy with the decision I’ve made,” he said this week.
“I’ll have more time to see my children grow and I’ll be mentally more there. As a captain, even when you’re at home your brain is still elsewhere a lot of the time.”
Cadence suffered the burns while Smith was playing in the Port Elizabeth test against Australia. “I remember finishing the day’s play and rushing over to the hospital and they were busy bandaging her up,” he said. “The hardest part was carrying her into surgery and watching them put her to sleep and you lay her down and you walk out.
“Arriving home after the PE test, and with what happened with my daughter, it felt like this was the place I want to be.”
In the seven months since he and his wife, Irish pop singer Morgan Deane Smith, moved into their new Cape Town home, Smith has spent a total of three weeks there.
The story of the man they call “Biff” has all the elements of a sporting fairytale. He joined the national team as a 21-year-old with an awkward style. People said it would have to change a lot if he was going to be successful. By 22, he was captain.
In his 12-year career with the national side, he scored more than 17 000 runs, captained 109 tests and smashed several South African records.
He also bowled over a beautiful Irish lass who knew nothing about cricket. “She thought I was a bum who lived with my parents and played club cricket on the weekends when I told her I was a cricketer,” Smith said.
As captain, Biff became the symbol of the Proteas’ successes and failures and bore the brunt of the public’s anger when the team did badly.
Smith said he had no real plans yet, but would head to Surrey, where he plays county cricket, in April. “Hopefully, someone will employ me.”
Despite having Irish citizenship, he will not be picking up a bat for that country. “I won’t be playing for Ireland. If I am going to play for anyone, it would be the Proteas,” he said.
Smith paid tribute to Deane, whom he married in Cape Town in August 2011.
In addition to being an “unbelievable” support during his career, Smith said she had carried the load when it came to Cadence and their baby boy, Carter, born in July last year.
“She’s been carrying a load, being at home with two kids who were born very close together. I think of her with the two kids travelling to wherever I am in the world, and making it work. She’s a very strong woman.”
Smith said the question of retiring from international cricket had been on his mind for a while. “I think I already knew before the series started that I wanted to do it during the series. I found myself waking up at night and this was on my mind, and waking up to go to the day’s play and this was on my mind.”
By day three of the final test at Newlands in Cape Town — in which the Proteas were thoroughly outplayed — he knew that was where he wanted to retire. “I knew I needed to commit to this decision. I’d given all I had to give,” he said.
He was so emotional while telling his team that he does not remember much about the moment. “I really struggled to get my words out. After I’d said my piece, I had to get out and get some fresh air because I was a bit of a wreck.”