Graeme Smith

At 43 years old, Graeme Smith has this physical status:

Graeme Craig Smith (born 1 February 1981) is a South African cricket commentator and former cricketer who played for South Africa in both formats.

He was named captain of the national team in 2003, taking over Shaun Pollock's role.

He served as the test captain until his retirement in 2014.

He is widely regarded as one of the finest South African players of all time.

He was appointed South Africa's youngest ever captain at 22, age 22. Smith, a tall, left-handed opening batsman, is regarded as one of the best test match openers of all time.

He made two centuries in Test matches, 277 at Edgbaston and 259 at Lord's, during South Africa's tour of England in 2003.

His 259 at Lord's holds the highest score ever recorded by a foreign player at this prestigious venue.

Smith was the second South African and 12th overall to complete 9,000 runs in test cricket in his 112th test match, and he was honored to be a part of all four of South Africa's opening partnerships over 300 runs, including three in 2011 with Neil McKenzie against Bangladesh, a world record opening partnership.

He resigned from international cricket on 3 March 2014, when he was a visiting player and captain of Surrey's third Test against Australia.

On July 19, 2012, he played in his 100th Test against England.

On his 32nd birthday, he captained his 100th Test match during his career.

He is the only player to cap a team in 100 Tests.

Early and personal life

Smith, a native of Johannesburg and raised in Scotland, was educated at King Edward VII School in Johannesburg. Smith played three Tests and seven One Day Internationals for South Africa under the age of 19, of which five were during the Under 19 Cricket World Cup. In the one-dayers, he scored one fifty in the test matches but scored five half-centuries. Smith was also one of the South African Cricket Annual's top players of the year in 2001-02 South Africa cricket season for his performances.

Morgan Deane, an Irish singer, married Smith at St Bernard Catholic Church in Claremont, Cape Town, in August 2011. Cadence Smith Smith, their daughter, was born on July 25, 2012, and their son, Carter McMorrin Smith, was born on July 15, 2013. Graeme and Morgan announced publicly that after four years of marriage, they would divorcing on February 18, 2015. Smith's third child, a boy, was born on December 24, 2016.

Smith is also a ardent Liverpool F.C. fan. Supporter.

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Domestic career

Graeme Smith has competed for several cricket teams in South Africa. He later played for the Cape Cobras, but his appearances for them were limited due to his international commitments, culminating in their last first-class game for them being in 2010. He has played 17 games for Western Province, scoring 1,312 runs on an average of 46.85. He has worked with various clubs in South Africa, including the United Cricket Board of South Africa Invitation XI and Western Province Boland.

He has also played county cricket for Somerset in the 2005 English cricket season, caping the club for a portion of the 2005 season, and he also scored a century in a tour match against the Australians in preparation for the 2005 Ashes series. He scored his first-class triple hundred (311 off 255 balls) against Taunton, England. In the Twenty20 Cup match against Northamptonshire, he scored 105, his 15th highest score in the domestic Twenty20 Cup competition. Smith was also the team's captain on the finals day to win the Twenty20 Cup trophy, with 64 not out of 47 balls in the final.

Graeme Smith played for Rajasthan Royals in 2008 during the inaugural Indian Premier League. Swapnil Asnodkar's first collaboration in 2006 was a huge success. "You can recognize an opponent as a cricketer," Royals captain Shane Warne, who Smith had multiple dustups in the past, wrote afterward, "but you only start to know him as a bloke when you play in the same team." The Graeme Smith I encountered with the Rajasthan Royals in 2008 was different from the Graeme Smith I encountered in the Test arena, as it turned out. That was the best part of the Indian Premier League. It brought together participants from all around the world to discuss concepts, swap experiences, and push the game forward globally. We had a laugh and a joking about the things we'd heard before. They sounded funny looking back. I know he has a few regrets, but, all praise to him, he sees the funny side."

Graeme Smith, the current captain of Surrey County Cricket Club, was announced on November 1st in 2012 as the new captain of the Surrey County Cricket Club starting in the 2013 season. On day one of the 2013 season's first championship match against Somerset, he earned his county cap at lunch.

International career

Smith made his Test debut for South Africa in 2002, batting at number three and scoring 68 in the second innings. In his third Test match against Bangladesh, Smith was promoted to open the batting with Herschelle Gibbs against Bangladesh. Smith (who scored 151) and Gibbs (228) recorded a first-wicket stand of 368, a national record not beat by Smith and Neil McKenzie's 415, and the fourth highest opening partnership in Test history at the time. Smith was named captain of South Africa's next Test after the 2003 Cricket World Cup and Shaun Pollock's subsequent resignation. He had only played eight Test matches and 22 ODIs before being deemed "few leadership credentials," according to the article. Graeme Smith was just 22 years and 82 days old when he captained his first match against Bangladesh, the youngest South African captain ever.

In the first Test at Lord's, he made two centuries in consecutive test matches (and 85 from 70 balls in the second innings). His 277 was the highest individual Test innings scored by a South African until November 2010, beating Daryll Cullinan and Gary Kirsten's record of 275, breaking Sir Donald Bradman's record of 254 for a foreign player. Alec Stewart called him "the most good 22-year-old I've seen in cricket" after his visit to Edgbaston, prompting Nasser Hussain to resign as England captain, to be replaced by Michael Vaughan. This superb run of form may have continued despite an extraordinary dismissal: in the third Test at Trent Bridge Smith, on 35, he trod on his stumps to be dismissed, but hit wicket. Smith did not reach 20 in the series as a galvanized England led by Vaughan won the match and fought back to tie the series 2–2, but Smith nevertheless finished the series with a total of 714 runs at an average of 79.33.

South Africa had a significantly less fruitful run in ODI cricket this year than they had expected, with a 5–1 series loss to New Zealand and a 5–0 series loss to Sri Lanka. South African cricket had defeated the West Indies 3-1 earlier this year, but South African cricket was described as being in a state of 'freefall.' South Africa also suffered a poor run in Test matches, losing to England, India, and Sri Lanka. They did win a home Test series against the West Indies (with Smith and Gibbs sharing their third 300-run opening partnership).

Although he was initially thought of as an inexperienced captain, his progress in the role was apparent as he was chosen to cap the ICC World XI and Australia in October 2005.

South Africa captured a Test series in the West Indies in 2005, with Smith scoring centuries in three Tests: 148 at the Queen's Park Oval, 104 at Antigua, and 126 at Antigua. However, Smith's return to Australia in the 2005–06 season was disappointing, given the fact that they lost by 2–0 at home and a 3–0 whitewash at home. However, he was nevertheless selected in the World Test XI by the ICC in 2005 for his appearances in 2005. At the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg, pride was revived when Smith led his team to victory over Australia in a One Day International at the Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, on March 12, 2006. South Africa defeated South Africa by beating them 434–4 from 50 overs, which was with a ball to spare. Smith had scored 90 runs off 55 balls in the chase and shared in a second-wicket partnership with Herschelle Gibbs. South Africa won by 3–2 over Australia in a 3–2 series victory.

Smith was bowled off for 27 runs against Pakistan on February 4th, the first player in ODI to reach six fours off an over; apart from the two innings of the aforementioned Wanderers match between Australia and South Africa, Smith was the first ODI to bowled off for 27 runs. In 2005, the South African cricket team won 20 consecutive matches in One Day Internationals as captain. After losing by eight wickets to Australia in early 2007 after replacing Australia on top of the official ICC rankings for ODI cricket, Smith's South Africans moved to second place in the 2007 ICC World Cup so far, with mixed results in the 2007 ICC World Cup so far. He began the tournament with four straight 50s, a record never before achieved by a captain.

Smith (who scored 232) and Neil McKenzie (226) made a world record 415 for the first wicket during Chittagong's second Test. The partnership beat the previous first-wicket record of 413 set in 1956 by Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy. They had finished day one with 405 runs on the board, the most wickets had been played by a pair in a single day of Test cricket without losing a wicket. Both Test runs ran in Smith's fourth opening partnership of over 300 runs and his sixth of over 200 runs.

Smith scored 108 in the second innings of the first Test against England at Lord's in 2008, again in partnership with McKenzie as South Africa continued to draw a Test that had not been declared lost. In the third Test at Edgbaston, he scored a second-innings 154 not out, leading South Africa to a daunting target of 281, and the first series victory in England since 1965. Smith had personal revenge against Michael Vaughan for denying South Africa a series of victories in 2003 and 2005-5-0, as a captain of England in an echo of Nasser Hussain's resignation five years ago.

South Africa will later fly to Australia for a Test and one-day series dubbed the 'heavyweight' series. The world champions were taking on the number two teams in South Africa, with the series champions emerging world champions. South Africa chased down 414 runs with 6 wickets in hand in the first test match at Perth. This was the second-largest fourth innings total on Australian soil and the second-largest fourth innings total chased down in history. Graeme Smith ripped away his Australian hoodoo by leading from the front and scoring 108, his first century against Australia. He would also discuss his friendship with Hashim Amla.

In December 2008, he captained the first South African team to win a test series against Australia on their soil, the first home loss on the opponents in 16 years. Smith batted in the second innings, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd in the third test of the series, despite a broken hand in an attempt to save the Third Test. He was out with ten runs remaining and Australia won the Test.

He was named captain of the World Test XI by ICC and Cricinfo in 2008 for his 2008 appearances.

Smith resigned as the ODI and Twenty20 captain after South Africa lost in the quarter-finals of the 2011 World Cup to New Zealand. AB de Villiers had a responsibility in his replacement. In a three-test series in 2012, Smith had to recover from an ankle injury before being able to face England. South Africa won a series of tests and landed the second after defeating England in the first and third tests and drawing the second. South Africa came in last in the ICC Test rankings, despite this placing them at the top of the ICC Rankings. Graeme Smith led England Test cricket captain Andrew Strauss to exile from all forms of cricket right after this loss, as a result of his tumultuous three English captains being dismissed in three tours to England.

By Cricinfo, he was named in Test XI of the year in 2012.

In October 2019, he was named as an honorary life member of the Marylebone Cricket Club in recognition of his contributions to Cricket.

He is the most effective test captain in test history (53 test victories) and also the only captain to have 50+ test victories, beating Ricky Ponting's 48 Test victories. He is the only one to cap a team in 100 Tests.

Coaching career

He was first hired as director of cricket for South Africa's national cricket team in mid-December 2019 and after his three-month stint as interim director of cricket, he was also scheduled for commentary for the 2020 Indian Premier League. However, his IPL directorship was postponed until March 2022, despite the postponement of the IPL due to COVID-19 fears. With immediate effect, his three-year tenure as the head of South Africa's team came to an end on March 31, 2022. Following the outcome of SJN Hearings, Smith decided not to reapply for the post.

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