Ntini had a Leon Schuster moment at midnight

ALONG with most South Africans, Makhaya Ntini wasn’t sure he had heard right when he was told that Graeme Smith had retired. But Ntini, who had the news broken to him around midnight on Monday by the BBC, who had a view to perchance putting him on air to discuss it, was having none of that. “I thought it was a prank call,” Ntini said. “I looked around and wondered where the cameras were.”

Barry Richards had a different take. “You know you’re getting old when the guys you first knew as schoolboys are retiring,” Richards, 68, said.

Of course, it wasn’t all about Smith. There was a test match out there, and Australia won it in style. Pocket pitbull David Warner said he had enjoyed being deployed within earshot of SA’s batsmen — and the stump microphones — as the tension mounted on the fifth day at Newlands when the home side were dismissed 27 balls away from what would have been an epic draw. “I wanted to give the people at home some entertainment while they’re blocking it out here,” said Warner.

Smith almost made it through his last press conference unscathed by emotion. But when all the questions had been asked and answered, Colin Bryden, the doyen of the SA cricket press corps, thanked Smith for being the man he is — a boon to journalists in need of a strong line from someone quotable. That was followed by sustained and heartfelt applause from a collection of grizzled hacks not easily given to softness. With that, Smith’s prow of a chin sank towards his chest. The squareness of his shoulders subsided. His eyes, often hard and clear, were suddenly misty. He raised a hand to his face, and wiped. Could it be that Graeme Smith, hardest bastard of the lot, was crying? Nah. Just something in his eye.

Surely...