Грэм Смит: Оң Африка крикетінің легендасы

Cricket player of South Africa
the South African cricketer

Graeme Craig Smith (born 1 February 1981) is a South African cricket commentator and former cricketer who played for South Africa in all formats. In 2003, he was appointed captain of the national team, taking over from Shaun Pollock. He held the position of test captain until his retirement in 2014. At 22, he was appointed as South Africa's youngest ever captain. He was the most capped captain ever when he played his (personally not captained) 102nd test against England. He is considered as one of South Africa's greatest ever captains having led South Africa to a record 54 test victories. A tall, left handed opening batsman, Smith is regarded as one of the greatest openers of all time. During South Africa's tour of England in 2003, he made double centuries in consecutive Test matches: 277 at Edgbaston, and 259 at Lord's. His 259 at Lord's still holds the record for being the highest score made by a foreign player at this prestigious venue. On 24 October 2013, Smith became the second South African and 12th overall to complete 9,000 runs in test cricket in his 112th test match. His highest score in ODI cricket which was his 141 he made against England in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy is also the highest score made by a South African at any tournaments. Known for the success of his opening partnership with Herschelle Gibbs, South Africa's most prolific ever opening partnership, Smith has the distinction of having been part of all four of South Africa's opening partnerships of over 300 runs: in three of them he was partnered by Gibbs, and in 2008 Smith added 415 for the first wicket with Neil McKenzie against Bangladesh, a world record opening partnership. On 3 March 2014, during the third Test against Australia, he announced his retirement from international cricket. He was also the overseas player and captain of the English side Surrey. He appeared in his 100th Test against England on 19 July 2012. He captained his 100th career Test match on 1 February 2013, against Pakistan, on his 32nd birthday. He's the only player to captain a side in 100 Tests. On September 9, 2022, Smith and Kallis announced partnerships with MCW as official ambassadors for cricket. Most recently, Graeme Smith has been appointed as the SA20 League Commissioner.

Born and raised in Johannesburg to Scottish parents Graham and Janet, Smith was educated at King Edward VII School. Smith played three Tests, and seven One Day Internationals for South Africa under 19s, of which five were during the Under 19 Cricket World Cup. He scored one fifty in the test matches, but scored five half centuries in the one dayers. Smith was also one of the South African Cricketers of the Year in the South African Cricket Annual for his performances in the 2001–02 South African cricket season. Smith married Irish singer Morgan Deane, at St Bernard Catholic Church in Claremont, Cape Town in August 2011. Their daughter, Cadence Christine Smith, was born 25 July 2012. and their son, Carter McMorrin Smith, was born on 15 July 2013. On 18 February 2015, Graeme and Morgan publicly announced that they would be divorcing after four years of marriage. On 24 December 2016, Smith's girlfriend Romy Lanfranchi gave birth to Smith's third child, a boy. Smith is also an ardent Liverpool F. C. supporter.

Graeme Smith has played for several cricket teams in South Africa. He latterly played for the Cape Cobras but due to his international commitments, his appearances for them were limited, his last first class game for them being in 2010. In total he has played 17 games for Western Province scoring 1,312 runs with four centuries at an average of 46.85. He has also played for other teams in South Africa including the United Cricket Board of South Africa Invitation XI and Western Province Boland. He has also played county cricket for Somerset in the 2005 English cricket season, captaining the club for part of the 2005 season, and he scored a century in a tour match against the Australians in preparation for the 2005 Ashes series. Against Leicestershire at Taunton he scored his maiden first class triple hundred (311 off 255 balls). He also hit 105 in the Twenty20 Cup match against Northamptonshire, which is currently the 15th highest score in the domestic Twenty20 Cup competition. Smith also captained the team to victory on finals day to secure the Twenty20 Cup trophy, making 64 not out from 47 balls in the final. In 2008 Graeme Smith played in the inaugural Indian Premier League for Rajasthan Royals. His opening partnership with Swapnil Asnodkar achieved significant success. "You can know an opponent as a cricketer," Royals captain Shane Warne, with whom Smith had had multiple dustups in the past, wrote afterward, "but you only start to know him as a bloke when you play in the same side. As it turned out, the Graeme Smith I played alongside for the Rajasthan Royals in 2008 was different from the Graeme Smith I faced in the Test arena. That was the great thing about the Indian Premier League. It brought together players from all countries to share ideas, swap experiences, and take the game forward worldwide. We had a laugh and a joke about the things we had said in the past. They sounded quite funny looking back. I know he has a few regrets, but, all credit to him, he sees the funny side." On 1 November 2012 Graeme Smith was announced as the new captain of Surrey County Cricket Club starting in the 2013 season. He received his county cap at lunch on day 1 of the first championship fixture of the 2013 season against Somerset.

G. Smith's record as captain MatchesWonLostDrawnTiedNo resultTest 1085328270–ODI 1499251–15T20I 27189–
He is the most successful test captain in test history (53 test wins) and also the only captain to have registered 50+ test wins, having overtaken Ricky Ponting's 48 Test victories. He's the only player to captain a team in 100 Tests.

He was appointed as director of cricket for South Africa national cricket team in mid December 2019 initially on a temporary three month stint and after the three month stint in an interim capacity as director of cricket, he was also slated for commentary role for the 2020 Indian Premier League. However, in April 2020, following the postponement of the IPL owing to COVID 19 concerns, his contract as director of CSA was extended to further two years up until March 2022. His three year tenure as director of South African team ended on 31 March 2022 with immediate effect. Smith decided not to reapply for the post following the outcome of SJN Hearings.

During a Test series against South Africa in 2005, Trinidadian Dwayne Bravo scored his maiden century – 107 – before getting out to Mark Boucher in the fourth Test in Antigua, but that was overshadowed when he accused Smith of directing a racist comment at him. At the subsequent hearing no evidence could be found and charges were dropped against Smith, who immediately demanded an apology from Bravo. Bravo, backed by the West Indies Cricket Board, refused to do so and received a hail of criticism from an indignant South African press while finding support at home as a human rights campaigner.

In 2021, he was accused of racism allegations during his playing career and the matter was taken into consideration at the Cricket South Africa's (CSA) Social Justice and Nation Building (SJN) transformation public hearings. He was among several employees of CSA to be implicated in tentative findings made by SJN ombudsman. The report claimed that he had engaged in racially biased and discriminatory behavior on three counts during his tenure as captain of South African test side and during his three year run as CSA's director of cricket. As the report claims, he was accused of causing a roadblock to wicketkeeper batsman Thami Tsolekile when he was on the verge of taking over the keeping duties from Boucher as Boucher's international career was cut short prematurely due to an eye injury. Smith paved way for AB de Villiers to become the designated wicketkeeper of the side ahead of Tsolekile despite the fact that de Villiers being only a specialist keeper for the test series against England in 2012. Moreover, Smith was also alleged to have been appointed as the director of cricket of Cricket South Africa in contrast to the CSA's recruitment policy. It was revealed that the then CEO of CSA Thabang Moroe headhunted Smith to appointed him as director of cricket despite the interviewing process for the relevant job position was still taking place. However, Smith was cleared of racism allegations by two independent arbitrators who indicated there was no evidence of racial bias and indicated that there was no evidence on whether Smith had engaged in racial discrimination. CSA has also been ordered to pay Smith's costs for the arbitration process.