Saluting Graeme Smith, a leader SA struggled to love
ENGLISH newspapers have been quick to praise Graeme Smith, the Proteas captain who retired from international cricket this week. More than any other cricketing nation, the English have been at the receiving end of Smith’s cunning and determined captaincy. He enjoyed much success against England, so much so that their captains fell down like dominoes in the wake of South African tours to the home of cricket.
The praise heaped on Smith by the English press and other fans abroad shows just how much the man many South Africans love to hate is respected elsewhere.
Whereas the opposition feared him, Smith was, for most of his tenure, vilified at home either because of an occasional dip in form or the team’s collective failures. But as he leaves the field, South Africa is at the summit of test cricket — perched so far above the rest that the series loss against Australia this month has not affected that number one status. Much of this is owed to Smith, who led from the front, winning test series away from home and coming back to cement that status by putting the opposition to the sword whenever he could.
He became captain at 22, taking over from Shaun Pollock at a difficult time, and tackled a tough task that included shaking up the Proteas’ dressing room and confronting older, popular and more established cricketers. He initially came across as a forthright and brash young captain who did little to endear himself to the public and some of his teammates. His leadership style, coupled with an awkward batting technique, meant he had to work twice as hard to prove his worth. His overall statistics provide evidence of that worth.
His successor will be in a comfortable position compared with the problems Smith faced when he picked up the reins in 2003. The new captain will inherit a team that has tasted victory many times. Sadly, it is not that simple. Staying at the top is often as hard as getting there, if not harder.
Smith’s retirement comes in the wake of Jacques Kallis’s retreat from the Proteas test squad. Add to that the injury-induced retirement of another veteran in Mark Boucher, and the future starts looking less optimistic. So it should not be seen as the end of the world if the test side suddenly goes through a dip — no team stays at the top forever, after all. But the cricketers left behind have a lot of positive experiences to draw from to remind them that South African dominance is possible. That, together with the recent World Cup success of the under-19 side, may just help future senior teams in the shorter versions of the game to get past the “choking” tag and claim the only missing accolade — that elusive one-day World Cup title.