Graeme Smith - Clearly missed the opportunity of being a legendary captain.

It was a very silent ending to a remarkably brilliant career of Graeme Smith in an innings in which he scored 3 runs facing just 3 deliveries and falling prey to Mitchell Johnson who had been troubling him throughout the tour. As the whole ground applauded this gritty left-handers final walk back to pavilion, he left behind him a legendary record of captaining a side for 109 matches, most by any one in the history of the game. Being the captain of the South African side for over 11 years he led them to 53 wins which is again the world record. During this career he also amassed 9265 runs with an impressive average of 48.25 and scoring 27 centuries, a record worth emulating. But Graeme Smith would always be known for his captaincy than his batting ability which also, by the way, stands apart. At 22 years of age, when he took over the captaincy from Shaun Pollock, the team was had talented individuals but was ailing. It was his fearless brand of cricket and vision of building a team with players who came up during his tenure like AB De Villiers, Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn ,Morne Morkel that today South Africa is holding the number 1 position in ICC’s Test rankings. He is undeniably the most successful captain of all times but question remains that was he the best that South Africa could have had and has it been the most that South Africa could have achieved ? The answer to this question would be a big NO. For last five years South Africa had the best allrounder in the world, 3 or 4 batsmen in the top 10 of rankings, world’s best bowling attack in Steyn, Morkel and Philander and yet they have not been able to win a single ICC championship. We say that he has been the most successful test captain but his winning percentage is below compatriot Hansie Cronje and Shaun Pollock. With the kind of talent pool they have maintained for over 10 years, they have still not been able to lose that tag of chokers because they have faltered at crucial moments. If he is attributed with the success that Proteas have achieved, these failures are also something which he cannot escape from. No one can deny the fact that the team has achieved very less in comparison to the capability which it had. Smith also has the same problem which Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has that he also tends to sit back and wait for things to happen, which does not help the team’s cause when you don’t have helping conditions. He has lacked the tactical way of approaching the game. That is where great captains have been different because they make things happen. And the best example of this would be Steve Waugh whose ways of captaincy are still afresh amongst us. Kallis’ reluctance to take over captaincy and lack of alternatives have been a reason for his very long tenure, or else the board might have tried someone else. But nonetheless his contribution to South Africa is immense and we hope that he continues being associated with the game and help South African team and the new captain to target World Cup 2015.