Graeme Smith

[LostDoggy]

Re: Graeme Smith

Smith was thrown in the deep end too early in his career...he has grown into one of the best cricketers in the world and is IMO the best captain in world cricket!! He is also a great slipper, not too much in the negative that I can see. I hope he gets all the kudo's that he deserves!!

[Bornadog]

Re: Graeme Smith

Smith was thrown in the deep end too early in his career...he has grown into one of the best cricketers in the world and is IMO the best captain in world cricket!! He is also a great slipper, not too much in the negative that I can see. I hope he gets all the kudo's that he deserves!!

totally agree, showed the Aussies how the game should be played

[Pedro Sanchez]

Re: Graeme Smith

I think there is way too much man love here for Smith. Sure he had a good series and seemed to have matured a lot since the last time he was out. But lets keep perspective – he’s a SAFA who plays across the line a little too often for my liking and he’s captaincy although good is sometimes meandering in the field and conservative.

Lets not forget our tail wagged a hell of a lot in this series – thankfully too! And this in part is due to the captain getting the bowling changes and field settings wrong. Its too easy these days to drop men immediately to the boundary when a number 10 or 11 strides the wicket. I think Smith failed in these areas but then again Ponting wasn’t superb either…

Anyway overall I have to agree that he is easier to tolerate now. The whole SAFA team played pretty well and deserved their victory. For the record I think the series was one of the most docile in terms of sledging I’ve seen from an aussie team in more than 15 years. These times must be a changing!

[westdog54]

Re: Graeme Smith

I think there is way too much man love here for Smith. Sure he had a good series and seemed to have matured a lot since the last time he was out. But lets keep perspective – he’s a SAFA who plays across the line a little too often for my liking and he’s captaincy although good is sometimes meandering in the field and conservative.

Lets not forget our tail wagged a hell of a lot in this series – thankfully too! And this in part is due to the captain getting the bowling changes and field settings wrong. Its too easy these days to drop men immediately to the boundary when a number 10 or 11 strides the wicket. I think Smith failed in these areas but then again Ponting wasn’t superb either…
Anyway overall I have to agree that he is easier to tolerate now. The whole SAFA team played pretty well and deserved their victory. For the record I think the series was one of the most docile in terms of sledging I’ve seen from an aussie team in more than 15 years. These times must be a changing!

I can see where you are coming from but I think you are selling our tail a little short here. We've always known Lee is highly competent with the bat, Johnson's proved he's a damn good cricketer (Richie Benaud said he'd just about consider Johnson an all-rounder, though not quite in those words), Krezja and Hauritz are handy, Siddle held his own, what I'm trying to say is that field placings and bowling changes are all well and good but if the batsman is playing well there's not always a lot the captain can do.

[Sockeye Salmon]

Re: Graeme Smith

I think there is way too much man love here for Smith. Sure he had a good series and seemed to have matured a lot since the last time he was out. But lets keep perspective – he’s a SAFA who plays across the line a little too often for my liking and he’s captaincy although good is sometimes meandering in the field and conservative.

Viv Richards played across the line all the time. He went OK.


Reminds me of a story from the WSC days.

A number of players were holding a clinic for a bunch of kids 10-12 year olds. One kid smashes Tony Greig back over his head.

Greig comes up to the kid and says "no, no, no. Look where your feet are."

The kid replies "**** my feet. Lookit the ball".

[mighty_west]

Re: Graeme Smith

I think there is way too much man love here for Smith. Sure he had a good series and seemed to have matured a lot since the last time he was out. But lets keep perspective – he’s a SAFA who plays across the line a little too often for my liking and he’s captaincy although good is sometimes meandering in the field and conservative.

Yet he is the numero uno batsmen going around, his team is arguably now numero uno in the world, his team has done what no other SA test side has done, and beaten Australia here, and his side had won what, 12 tests in a row?...Thats not bad!!!!

Number one batsman, number one team, number one captain, it's not man love, its recognition of a very good player and team.