There will never be another Smith

Many have got the credit for this; the extraordinary gifts of Jacques Kallis that gave the side the balance no other team in modern times has enjoyed, the emergence of AB de Villiers as a many-splendoured talent, the calm and the brilliance of Hashim Amla, the flowering of Dale Steyn and his partnership with Morne Morkel, even the stunning arrival of Vernon Philander in the last twelve months. But it seemed the halo had passed Smith by. It is difficult to understand.

A hundred test matches as captain (even if it includes that messy supertest in Australia) means that you have been good enough to be picked for a start, that you have held the team together in a very complex environment, that you are looked up to and that you have consistently been higher rated than the next best candidate. By whichever standards you choose, this is a colossal achievement and one that the cricket world needs to salute.

Mellowing with age

There are signs that Smith is mellowing, fatherhood can change your perspective to most things, and his colleague throughout his career Jacques Kallis said recently that he now knows "when to be which character". It is an interesting assessment suggestive of a less than judicious start and a greater understanding of people now. It is easy to forget that he is still only 32, Rahul Dravid only got the captaincy at that age, and people are still growing into leadership roles, if at all, in many other pursuits in life.

As a batsman alone, he has been a giant and I looked at three other players who started around the time Smith did to put things in perspective. Smith has 8624 runs from 107 tests @ 49.28 with 26 centuries. Michael Clarke, who started a couple of years later and has been rather more celebrated as a cricketer and leader, has 6989 runs from 89 tests @ 52.24 with 22 centuries; Andrew Strauss had 7037 runs from 100 tests @ 40.91 and Virender Sehwag has played 102 tests for 8559 runs @ 50.05 and has 23 centuries. In terms of numbers there is little to choose there and yet talk of the greatest modern batsmen rarely moves quickly to Smith. It is, I believe, something we are guilty of.

... contd.

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