Graeme Smith

Graeme Smith
South Africa
Personal information
Full name	Graeme Craig Smith
Nickname	Biff
Born	1 February 1981 (1981-02-01) (age 27)
	Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa
Role	Batsman
Batting style	Left-handed
Bowling style	Right arm off-spin
International information
Test debut (cap 286)	March 8 2002: v Australia
Last Test	October 5 2007: v Pakistan
ODI debut (cap 68)	March 30 2002: v Australia
Last ODI	August 26 2007:  v Zimbabwe
ODI shirt no.	15
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1990/2000	Gauteng
2000/01-2003/04	Western Province
2004/05-2006/07	Cape Cobras
2005	Somerset
Career statistics
	Tests	FC	ODIs	LA
Matches	56	91	121	173
Runs scored	4531	7360	4524	6686
Batting average	47.69	49.02	40.39	42.31
100s/50s	12/18	20/27	6/31	10/49
Top score	277	311	134*	134*
Balls bowled	1319	1687	1026	1968
Wickets	8	11	18	47
Bowling average	100.12	95.27	52.83	38.21
5 wickets in innings	0	0	0	0
10 wickets in match	0	0	n/a	n/a
Best bowling	2/145	2/145	3/30	3/30
Catches/stumpings	67/-	121/-	62/-	89/-
As of October 7, 2007 Source: CricketArchive

Graeme Craig Smith (born 1 February 1981 in Johannesburg) is a cricketer who became the youngest ever player to captain the South African cricket team at the age of 22 years when he was selected to take over from Shaun Pollock after the 2003 Cricket World Cup after Pollock had miscalculated the Duckworth-Lewis calculations to win the game. He is a tall and strongly built left handed opening batsman standing at 6'3 and 15 stone who is usually very leg-side orientated at the crease. He is also an occasional off spin bowler.

Early Years

Smith grew up in Houghton, Johannesburg and was a prolific run scorer in school cricket at the King Edward School in Johannesburg. He played 3 'Tests' for South Africa Under-19's and 7 one dayers for them. He was unsuccessful in the Tests, only managing one fifty but managed 5 half centuries in the shorter form which gave him an average of 84 from his 7 games. He made his Test debut for South Africa in 2002 in Cape Town against Australia, batting at number three. The second innings of the match saw him notch his first half-century.

Career Highlights

Graeme Smith's career performance graph.

He showed his talent in the tour of England in 2003 when he made double centuries in consecutive Test matches: a national record of 277 at Edgbaston, and 259 at Lord's. His score of 259 at Lord's is, in fact, the highest score at the ground by a foreign player. The previous record was 254 by Sir Donald Bradman. These performances prompted Alec Stewart to call him "the most impressive 22-year-old I have seen in cricket". ^[1] He joined English county Somerset as captain for part of the 2005 season and scored a century in their notable victory over tourists Australia. Against Leicestershire at Taunton he smashed his maiden first class triple hundred with 311 off just 255 balls. The innings included 11 sixes. He also hit 105 in the Twenty20 Cup, to become one of only 11 players to have hit a century in the Twenty20 era so far. Smith also captained the team to victory on finals day to lift the trophy. Despite receiving much criticism when he was initially chosen to captain South Africa as the time Smith was only 22 years old and had played only 8 test matches., Smith has matured into a capable Test and ODI captain. His growth in the role was evidenced when he was selected to captain the ICC World XI in the ICC Super Series Test Match between the ICC World XI and Australia in October 2005. South Africa's tour of Australia, and Australia's subsequent return tour in the 2005/06 season were disappointments for Smith, as they succumbed to a 2-0 defeat in Australia, then a 3-0 whitewash at home. Racial abuse of players in Perth, and media inflammation of comments between Smith and his Australian counterpart Ricky Ponting overshadowed much of the tour. Pride was salvaged when Smith led from the front in South Africa's famous win over Australia in an One Day International at Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, on March 12, 2006. Australia set South Africa a world record 434-4 from 50 overs, which was eclipsed by South Africa who achieved 438-9 with a ball to spare. The match still holds a multitude of records, most significantly the highest successful run chase in a One-Day International. Smith played a vital role in setting up the victory. He scored a blazing 90 runs off only 55 balls and was involved in a second wicket partnership of 187 runs with Herschelle Gibbs. He has also had success in partnership with Gibbs in Test cricket, sharing stands of over 300 with him three times. They are the only pair in Test cricket to have done this. On the 3rd of January 2007 against India at Cape Town, Smith brought up his 4000th Test run. He is the second youngest player in Test history to reach the milestone at 25 years and 336 days behind Sachin Tendulkar (24 years and 224 days).^[2] In the 1st ODI against Pakistan on the 4th of February, Smith hit an over of Naved-ul-Hasan for 27 runs and became the first player in ODI history to hit 6 fours off an over.^[3] As captain he led the South African cricket team to 17 consecutive undefeated matches in One Day Internationals in 2005. In early 2007 Smith's South Africans replaced Australia on top of the official ICC rankings for ODI cricket, although they have since reverted to second after mixed results in the 2007 ICC World Cup thus far after losing to Australia by 8 wickets. In the 2007 World Cup he started the tournament with 4 successive 50's, a feat never before achieved by a captain.^[4]

Personality and Controversies

Smith has earned a reputation as a hard-edged cricketer and assertive leader, a combination which is often interpreted by his critics as arrogance. Smith was once accused by West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo of racial abuse, but was cleared of those allegations.^[5] He has however, been punished several times by the International Cricket Council for various infringements, mostly for dissent and slow over rates.^{[6] [7] [8]} He has a frosty relationship with Australian players. This is based on Smith's predilection for words rather than deeds, with repeated calls for South African aggression resulting in lacklustre team results, and dismal personal performances. He is also at loggerheads with South African born English star batsman Kevin Pietersen. Smith, who is forever passionate about his nation, considers Pietersen a traitor for abandoning his native country, while Pietersen describes Smith as an "absolute muppet" in his book Crossing the Boundary.^[9] Pietersen is a staunch critic of South Africa's racial quota selection policy, citing it as the reason he left South Africa as a young cricketer.^[10] Smith has also fallen out with the current England captain Michael Vaughan during the 2004-05 England tour of South Africa over a dispute concerning bad light during the 4th test in Smith's native Johannesburg. In Vaughan's 2nd book Calling the Shots Vaughan refers to Smith as "the witness".Vaughan lost his entire match fee for the match after the dispute.^[11]

Test Centuries

One Day International Centuries

References

External links

• Cricinfo profile

•  • e South Africa squad - 2007 Cricket World Cup
1 Bosman • 2 Boucher • 3 De Villiers • 4 Gibbs • 5 Hall • 6 Kallis • 7 Kemp • 8 Langeveldt • 9 Nel • 10 Ntini • 11 Peterson • 12 Pollock • 13 Prince • 14 Smith (c) • 15 Telemachus • Coach: Arthur