SA View: South African media questions why the public failed to warm to Graeme Smith

SOME in South Africa are wondering if, despite their vastly different careers, Hansie Cronje is more admired than Graeme Smith.

DOES the South African public admire Hansie Cronje more than it does Graeme Smith?

It seems an odd question to ask, given Cronje’s cricket career ended in disgrace after admitting to match fixing, before his life was tragically cut short in a plane crash.

Smith, on the other hand, led his country more times than anyone else in the history of Test cricket, took his side from underachievers to world-beaters, and earned the respect of the international community with his astute and strong leadership.

News_Rich_Media: His final innings only lasted three balls, but Graeme Smith was given an appropriate send off by the Newlands crowd and the Australian players, as Smith blew time on a career spanning 117 Tests — 109 of which were as captain.

And yet as South Africa continues to digest Smith’s sudden retirement after the series loss to Australia, some are still wondering out loud why many in the country never really warmed to the 33-year-old.

“I could never understand why there was such a large and vocal hate club attached to Graeme Smith,” Stuart Hess wrote in The Star.

“I suppose it’s because we’re just such a strange country; offer up criticism of Smith, and you can get a person to buy you a beer, criticise Hansie and it’s ‘do you want to step outside?’”

Australians can relate, or at least understand the complex relationship between the public and the national captain, given our experience with Michael Clarke, although the reasons for disliking Smith are vastly different.

News_Image_File: Graeme Smith was admired by his teammates, but not necessarily by the general public.

“We all make errors, we all say and do stupid things, but unlike Smith many don’t say or do those stupid things in the public spotlight, while trying to find themselves as people and trying to build a national cricket side — a team of which everyone can be proud of in a pretty complex society like South Africa, against a backdrop of petty political interference from an administrative body that at times has been inept and corrupt and rarely stable,” Hess wrote.

Antoinette Muller of The Daily Maverick continued the theme, virtually chastising Proteas fans for not appreciating Smith enough.

“Smith had his faults, but not enough faults to explain the South African public’s disdain for him,” Muller wrote.

“Even in his retirement, there is an element of ‘good riddance’ rather than ‘good luck’. It is not that he is vastly misunderstood, it’s just that many refused to understand.

News_Image_File: Graeme Smith with his wife Morgan Deane and children Cadence and Carter.

“It will only be in a few years’ time that South Africans will realise what they have lost, while crying into their Castle Lagers and desperately seeking a new scapegoat.

“With Smith’s retirement, another chapter closes on South African cricket, and it is not until history judges him that his greatness will truly be comprehended.”

It’s strong stuff, but it goes to show just how hard it will be to find an adequate replacement for Smith.

Former South Africa and Australia Test player Kepler Wessels used his SuperSport column to urge selectors not to rush into a decision, and when they do choose Smith’s successor, to choose wisely.

News_Rich_Media: Graeme Smith's annoucement that he will retire from International cricket at the end of the Test against Australia has shocked and surprised teammates, friends and the cricket community.

“This is a very important time for South African cricket,” Wessels wrote. “Three experienced players have retired within a short space of time.

“Mark Boucher, Jacques Kallis and now Graeme Smith formed the core of the team for a very long time and to lose them all virtually within the space of a number of months will have an impact on the functioning of the group.

“During my time with Australia, Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh all retired at the same time and it took the team a long time to recover from the loss of such influential players.

“Fortunately, in AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, there remains a core group of world-class players around which strong teams can be built. These players in particular need to take over the mantle of Smith, Kallis and Boucher.”

News_Image_File: AB de Villiers is the favourite to take over the captaincy from Smith.

While the majority of South African journalists were looking ahead, Rob Houwing from Sport24 couldn’t help but look back at what might have been in the series against Australia.

In particular, he questioned whether the administrators and even the groundsmen, rather than the players themselves, should shoulder some of the blame for the Proteas’ loss.

“For the most part, I am convinced (the pitches) played a little too much into Aussie hands during the course of a classically hard-fought set of battles,” Houwing wrote.

“What’s more, I believe several senior Proteas personnel would have loved to say as much, but they are aware sour grapes is a poor phenomenon and they have overwhelmingly — at least thus far — desisted.

“At present, I am not convinced the all-important national team and its brains trust are on the same song-sheet as the administrators and ground-staff at the countrywide, well-entrenched Test grounds.

“Bottom line: when at home you’ve got to make that advantage count.

“Other teams do.”