Graeme Smith has announced he will retire from international cricket at the conclusion of the final Test against Australia in Cape Town.
Smith, 33, is playing his 117th Test match – 109 of which have been as captain, a world record – and currently stands on 9257 runs. He revealed the news to his team-mates after the third day’s play at Newlands. He said finishing on his home ground felt like the perfect ending and that it was something he had been considering since ankle surgery last year.
“This has been the most difficult decision I have ever had to make in my life,” he said. “It’s a decision that I have been considering since my ankle surgery in April last year. I have a young family to consider, and I felt that retiring at Newlands would be the best way to end it because I have called this place home since I was 18 years-old.
“I have always been someone who has left everything out there on the field for my team and for my country. I’m extremely honoured and proud to have had the privilege to lead so many wonderful players and to have been a part of building the Proteas culture to what it is today. It is a culture that every player can be, and is, immensely proud of.”
In the current series, with one innings remaining, Smith has made just 42 runs and has been troubled particularly by Mitchell Johnson. He has not scored a half-century for eight innings – although did make 234 against Pakistan in October – and if South Africa lose against Australia it will be their first series loss since 2008-09. There were rumours before the India series late last year that Smith, who took on the captaincy in 2003, threatened to resign over selection issues.
His statement continued: “I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the support from my parents and brother, my wife and children, my friends, my sponsors, my fans and to Cricket South Africa. I thank and honour the players who I have played with and those who have supported me and helped me to be the person and captain I am today.
“I have been fortunate to have had many highs, amongst them leading and being part of the best Test team in the world. I will cherish these memories for the rest of my life. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I bid my career a fond yet sad farewell.”
One of many of the notable statistics in Smith’s career is that none of his 27th Test hundreds have come in a defeat. Stand-out performances that he will be remembered for include back-to-back double hundreds against England in 2003, his series-winning innings at Edgbaston in 2008, captaining South Africa to a series with in Australia, during which he came out to bat with a broken hand in Sydney, and maintaining South Africa’s formidable record on the subcontinent.
Smith’s retirement follows quickly on from that of Jacques Kallis who quit Test cricket at the end of last year, although Kallis is aiming to extend his ODI career to take part in the World Cup. Smith’s one-day career had appeared to be on the wane when he was dropped after last year’s series against Pakistan in the UAE; in 197 ODIs he scored 6989 runs at 37.98 with 10 hundreds.
One of the impacts of Smith’s retirement is that he will now be able to play for Surrey as a non-overseas player due to his Irish citizenship. The first year of his deal was cut short by his need for ankle surgery. When he signed his contract with Surrey there were suggestions at the time that he could end his South Africa career there and then.
Haroon Lorgat, the Cricket South Africa chief executive, admitted Smith’s decision had come as a shock and praised his “nerves of steel”.
“Although Graeme’s decision to retire from all forms of international cricket comes as a surprise to all of us, we must respect him for deciding to call time,” he said. “Knowing him as well as I do, having been instrumental as a selector in appointing him as a young captain, he would not have taken this decision lightly or without a great deal of thought.
“He has captained the Proteas for more than a decade and he will draw a lot more satisfaction from the fact that he leaves our Test team at the top of the world and in such good health rather than from all the personal records he has achieved as the longest-serving captain the game has ever seen in the demanding Test format.
“I would like us to remember Graeme for his nerves of steel and his match-winning performances that were synonymous with some of the most remarkable fourth innings victory chases of all time. These included setting up the 414 runs chase against Australia at Perth and his series-clinching innings at Edgbaston in 2008, not to mention the unbeaten century the last time he faced Australia at Newlands in 2011. His role in setting up the famous 438 win over Australia in 2006 was also a performance never to be forgotten.
“He can leave the game with pride and he thoroughly deserves the gratitude of our nation for leading the Proteas with much distinction. From a personal point of view I am thrilled that I was part of the panel that appointed him captain in 2003 when his first major assignment was a tough tour to England and I feel privileged to see him now move on to the next stage of his career. He has been a mighty warrior, a leader of men and an exceptional part of our international cricket.”
Well done Graeme Smith you served your country well on the cricket pitch. You will be appreciated more outside of RSA!
Who will forget graeme smith walking out to bat with a broken hand at the SCG.
This guest post is written by Justin Nurse of Laugh It Off, who made a name for himself selling t-shirts and litigating corporates.
It’s a well-kept secret (until now) that the Proteas train at Transfit Gym in Claremont. That’s where you’ll also find Southern Suburbs illuminati such as Richard Neville and Phil Venter working out to the gee-up shouts of Transfit founders Simon Schoon and Jonno Meintjies.
I see them all come and go as I swim in the pool below. Swimming is my form of meditation, along with test cricket. Which is why I care when I see Graeme Smith or Dale Steyn on the treadmill – it’s good to know that they’re getting battle-ready. As am I. I work very hard to pay the bond, pay the school fees, pay the man. Two hours a week I get to swim at six in the morning and forget about that all, and I similarly tune out when the Proteas are playing the five-day game.
When test cricket is on, I’m in a war of attrition with myself: if we’re playing in Australia, I have to adjust my body clock, and if we’re playing at Newlands I have to adjust my work schedule to accommodate time spent at the ground. I face bouncers from the missus who hurtles missives at me from less than the required 22 yards such as, “What are you doing up so late?” and “Don’t you have to go to work?” and “This game’s been on for five days!” As any Test Cricket fan knows, there’s no sense in explaining.
And so it is that I found myself there yesterday (day three of the Newlands Test Match), chatting with Andy Skinstad about how I’ve got a hunch that Graeme Smith might be about to call time on his career. How I’d asked Mark Boucher at soccer at Bob’s house last week if I might be onto something and how he’d replied, “Ja maybe, because most of the senior players have now left and it’s a younger changing room…”
It was a great day spent watching cricket in the sun, applying lots of the free Sunfoil sunscreen they were throwing out into the crowd (the opposite of cooking oil so not much of a branding exercise, but anyways) – so much sunscreen that the opposition wouldn’t have spotted my tan and known that I’d had too much of my meditative fun. Cricket-wise though, the Aussies were all over this and the war was starting to take its toll on my optimism.
Now it’s the next day and I’m at Café Nood, next to Transfit, after my hour in the pool, and I’m doing the math on how any ways you cut it, we’ll have to bat for at least four and a half sessions and chase down 450-plus. I’m tucking into breakfast, mentally and physically readying myself for the task at hand. An SMS comes in from Andy: “You called it.”
Damn, he can only be talking about one thing. I swipe on over to Cricinfo to confirm the news that, indeed, Biff has retired. Then I look up (and this is the part of the story that you could’ve skipped to straight away), and there’s Graeme Smith. The man himself, also having breakfast. He’s deep in conversation with his wife, and he’s clutching at the Protea emblem on his track top.
Spotted! Biff orders a coffee and announces his retirement.
“This is what’s it’s all been about love, playing for this badge, playing for the Proteas.” That’s more or less what I lip-read as I try not to stare in awe like a star struck teen. I surreptitiously snap a pic of him ordering another coffee and figure I’ll leave it be. I’ve been caught in the public enough times myself to know that it’s boggy to be boggy-ed when (in his case) you’re just trying to wolf down a breakfast, score a double century to save the series, and face up to the rest of your life with that weight off of your shoulders.
I can’t help myself though. I choose the moment when he finishes a phone call to go on over there and thank the man. I’m searching for an in – not “I’m the T-shirt guy.” I mutter something about how I play soccer with Bouch at Bob’s place (interpret: I’m not a crazy fan – yes I am), and how I just want to thank him for all that he’s done for South African cricket.
And then I just break down. I start bawling my eyes out, right there in front of him and his wife. I can’t help myself, and it is pathetic to see. Blind one, as we used to say back in the 90s. I’m trying to tell him how I was with him when he came out to bat with a broken hand, how I also followed those angling sliders from Zaheer Kahn that got him time and again, how those double hundreds in England gave me a six-pack and a renewed sense of self-belief, putting me aloft on a pedestal above our colonial oppressors, the irksome English.
I’m trying to tell him how, as whack as it is, my patritiotism – distilled as it is into, and only into, the longest, purest form of the game – has come to define me. How that is a part of me of which I am most proud. And how since he’s been at the helm, it’s felt f-ing awesome to win so often as well, and to become number one.
These are thoughts and sentences that I’m feebly constructing in my mind, while my lips are merely mumbling trite, pithy crap that he’s surely all heard before as tears are streaming down my face and I’m choking up. “Really, just thank you for everything,” and “I wish you well in the future”, when what I’m trying to convey is that feeling of escape, that meditative place of transcendence, that watching him and his team has allowed me to get to. A place where I can forget about my day-to-day problems, where life is about sharing the highs and lows of score updates and what’s happening in a crucial session with a few close friends. A world where I Am Biff.
“Don’t worry bud, I’ve also spent the last 24 hours crying. I know how it feels.” Biff is consoling me. Truly, if he hadn’t been sitting down I’d have asked for a hug. I needed one. I return to my table only to realize that his folks are sitting opposite me, looking after his new-born baby girl. “Thank you,” I say to them. “Thank you for giving birth to such an awesome son.”
Does my gushing know no low? Have I no shame? People are staring at what’s going down and my bill can’t come soon enough. As he leaves Biff comes over to me and hands me his Proteas jumper, the one with the badge that he was so fervently clutching. “Here, I want you to have this bud. You deserve it. Thank you for what you said to me.”
I’m left speechless, and some bald-headed guy interjects with “I heard about your decision Graeme, and I can’t say that I agree.” Graeme is polite, trying to chat to his folks. “Are you going to be okay, son?”, his mum asks. “I don’t know Ma, probably not.”
He leaves, heading off down the road to Newlands and his last two days at the helm of the Proteas’ destiny. He returns though and ambles up to me, shell-shocked as I still am. “Sorry bud, I hope you don’t mind, but I left my daughter’s dummy in the pocket. Mind if I grab it? I’m sure you don’t need that in your life.”
Crybaby that I am, I probably do. Biff will be just fine though, just fine.
Read more: http://www.2oceansvibe.com/2014/03/04/i-am-biff-you-have-to-read-this-graeme-smith-tribute-from-justin-nurse/#ixzz2v146By00
@SuperBul 32
Saw that earlier on a Facebook link as well, also thought it was quite cool
With the photo of Biff and the mrs and the last one where he poses with the top
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