A remarkable rise

Graeme Smith's astonishing promotion from Test rookie to South African captain took 12 months. Luke Alfred assessed his progress in the June issue of Wisden Cricket Monthly

Early in 2001 South African cricket looked forward to the post-Hansie Cronje, post-transformation period in which good governance and good cricket were the order of the day. It did not turn out that way.

After good wins against India at home during the 2001-02 season South Africa travelled down under. They played reasonable cricket for three days in the first Test at Adelaide and then went walkabout, their spirit creeping home even as their bodies remained. Australia stalked them. In South Africa the hosts made a stand in Tests two and three but, when Australia left, South African cricket engaged in another ritual of blood-letting, firing the coach Graham Ford and all the selectors. The slate was wiped clean but still the bickering remained. There was a lot of talk about the ordinariness of Shaun Pollock's captaincy and of players being too old and greedy.

There was light in the darkness. Jacques Rudolph was obviously talented and Justin Ontong, who had replaced Rudolph in the third Test in Australia because he was the right colour, was obviously destined to go further. And then there was Graeme Smith. The tall left-hander had an interesting pedigree. His senior school education took place at King Edward VII School in Johannesburg, the school attended by Ali Bacher, his nephew Adam and Neil McKenzie.

Smith made his debut against Australia in the second Test at Newlands in March 2002, scoring 68 in the second innings. A little over a year later he was named South Africa's captain, having been originally left out of the World Cup squad. (He replaced the injured Jonty Rhodes.) It is one of the most astonishing promotions in Test history.

A couple of weeks after his debut last year Smith told lurid tales of the Aussies' capacity for sledging to SA Sports Illustrated. It made him look like a rat but it also provided battered South Africa with a kind of catharsis, showing the Aussies as they really were, rather than how their public relations machine would have us see them. It also demonstrated that Smith had media savvy beyond his years.

And he could play. An inveterate hooker and puller, he is never going to be a master craftsman or a cavalier. There is not much of either Daryll Cullinan or Sachin Tendulkar about his technique. He is a bit of a bludgeoner with a dominant bottom hand, but most noticeable is his determination and his capacity to play long innings.

Strangely, after he left school his home province did not offer him a contract. So he packed his bags and left for Western Province, taking up a junior position on the playing staff. It was a move that might have daunted less self-confident young men. Western Province had Gary Kirsten, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Hylton Ackerman and Ashwell Prince in their top five. Some of them were not there for long periods, due to international duties, but there was certainly ample opportunity for young players to be intimidated. Smith, by all accounts, pricked up his ears and grafted. In doing so he impressed the provincial coach, Eric Simons, who took him under his wing.

Smith had an impressive SuperSport series in 2000-01, scoring 676 runs at 42.25 but it was his performance in the SuperSport final at Newlands in March 2001 that really captured the imagination. Batting first, Border were rolled for 252. Western Province replied with 469, built on the back of Smith's 183, scored in 603 minutes.

Western Province won the final by an innings and 26 runs and Smith had arrived shortly after his 20th birthday. When he succeeded Pollock after the World Cup he was only 22. South Africans do not like to admit it but they have a tradition of very ordinary captains: Alan Melville and Dudley Nourse in the forties and fifties, Clive van Ryneveld in the mid to late 1950s and Trevor Goddard in the 1960s. Happily there is an alternative tradition, a tradition of boldness and flair best exemplified by Ali Bacher and, although he never captained South Africa, Eddie Barlow, a pivotal figure in the 1960s.

One can only hope that Smith falls into the later category. South African cricket is desperately in need of some dynamism from the front.

Luke Alfred is deputy sports editor of the Sunday Times in Johannesburg.

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The June 2003 edition of Wisden Cricket Monthly is on sale at all good newsagents in the UK and Ireland, priced £3.25.