Date of Birth : 1st February 1981
Place of Birth : Johannesburg, Transvaal Province, South Africa
Nick Name : Biff
Height : 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Batting Style : Left-Handed
Bowling Style : Right Arm Off Break
Role : opener,Occasional Off Spinner, South African Captain
Test Debut (cap 286) : 8th March 2002 v Australia
ODI Debut (cap 68) : 30th March 2002 v Australia
Graeme Craig Smith (born 1 February 1981) is a South African cricketer and captain of the South African cricket team Test Match side, having succeeded Shaun Pollock after the 2003 Cricket World Cup. He was succeeded as captain of the ODI side by AB de Villiers after the 2011 Cricket World Cup.
A tall, left-handed opening batsman, on the 2003 South African tour of England he made double centuries in consecutive Test matches:277 at Edgbaston, and 259 at Lord's. The 259 is the highest score made at Lord's by a foreign player.
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.
Early and Personal Life
Born and raised in Johannesburg to 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 awarded the South African Cricketer of the Year award for his performances in the 2001–02 South African cricket season.
Smith is married to Irish singer Morgan Deane, whom he married at St Bernard Catholic Church in Claremont, Cape Town in August 2011.
Graeme Smith has played for a number of cricket teams in South Africa. He currently plays for the Cape Cobras but due to his international commitments, his appearances for them have been limited, his last game for them being on 28 October 2004. 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 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 afterwards, "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 to 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."
Smith made his Test debut for South Africa in 2002 in Cape Town against Australia, batting at number three and scoring 68 in the second innings. Promoted to open the batting with Herschelle Gibbs against Bangladesh in his third Test match, Smith scored 200. In the following home series against Pakistan, Smith (who scored 151) and Gibbs (228) shared a first-wicket stand of 368, a national record until bettered by Smith and Neil McKenzie's 415, and at the time the fourth highest opening partnership in Test history. Following the 2003 Cricket World Cup and Shaun Pollock's subsequent resignation, Smith was selected as captain for South Africa's next Test. The decision was criticised as it was felt that he had shown 'few leadership credentials':he had played only eight Test matches and 22 ODIs before being given the captaincy.Graeme Smith was only 22 years and 82 days old when he captained his first match against Bangladesh, the youngest ever South African captain.
During the tour of England in 2003 he made double centuries in consecutive test matches:277 (and 85 from 70 balls in the second innings) in the first Test at Edgbaston, and 259 in an innings victory in the second Test at Lord's. His 277 remained the highest individual Test innings scored by a South African until November 2010, surpassing the previous record of 275 held jointly by Daryll Cullinan and Gary Kirsten; his 259 remains the highest score made at Lord's by a foreign player, breaking the record of 254 set by Sir Donald Bradman in 1930. These performances prompted Alec Stewart to call him "the most impressive 22-year-old I have seen in cricket";the Edgbaston match prompted Nasser Hussain to retire as captain of England, to be succeeded by Michael Vaughan. This outstanding run of form could have continued but for an unusual dismissal: in the third Test at Trent Bridge Smith, on 35, played back to Andrew Flintoff and trod on his stumps to be dismissed hit wicket. Smith did not pass 20 again in the series as a galvanised England led by Vaughan won the match and fought back to draw the series 2–2, but Smith nonetheless finished the series with an aggregate of 714 runs at an average of 79.33,and was named player of the series (jointly with Flintoff).
During the year 2004 South Africa had a significantly less successful run in ODI cricket than they would have expected, with a 5–1 series loss to New Zealand and a 5–0 series loss to Sri Lanka. They had beaten the West Indies 3–1 earlier in the year, but South African cricket was described as being in a state of 'freefall'. In Test matches also South Africa suffered a poor run with series losses to England, India and Sri Lanka. They did nevertheless win a home Test series against the West Indies (with Smith and Gibbs sharing their third 300-run opening partnership).
South Africa won a Test series in the West Indies in 2005, with Smith scoring centuries in three consecutive Tests: 148 at the Queen's Park Oval, 104 at the Kensington Oval and 126 at Antigua. However, their tour of Australia, and Australia's subsequent return tour in the 2005–06 season were disappointments for Smith, as they succumbed to a 2–0 defeat in Australia,and a 3–0 whitewash at home. Pride was restored when Smith led his team to victory in South Africa's win over Australia in a One Day International at the Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, on 12 March 2006. Australia set South Africa a world record 434–4 from 50 overs, which was successfully chased by South Africa who reached 438–9 with a ball to spare.Smith scored 90 runs off 55 balls in the chase, and shared in a second wicket partnership of 187 runs with Herschelle Gibbs.The result gave South Africa in a 3–2 series victory over the Australians.
In the first ODI against Pakistan on 4 February 2007, Smith hit an over bowled by Naved-ul-Hasan for 27 runs, and became the first player in ODI history to hit six fours off an over; Smith scored 72 from 47 balls as South Africa totalled 392–6, the highest ODI total ever made against a Test nation (excluding Zimbabwe) apart from the two innings of the aforementioned Wanderers match between Australia and South Africa. As captain he led the South African cricket team through 20 consecutive undefeated matches in One Day Internationals in 2005.In early 2007 Smith's South Africans replaced Australia on top of the official ICC rankings for ODI cricket but returned to second place after mixed results in the 2007 ICC World Cup thus far after losing to Australia by eight wickets. In the 2007 World Cup he started the tournament with four successive 50s, a feat never before achieved by a captain.
During the second Test against Bangladesh at Chittagong in begun on 29 February 2008 Smith (who scored 232) and Neil McKenzie (226) put on a world record 415 for the first wicket. The partnership beat the previous first-wicket record of 413 which had been set in 1956 by Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy. They had finished day one with 405 runs on the board which was the most ever put on by a pair in a single day of Test cricket without losing a wicket.The partnership was Smith's fourth opening partnership of over 300 runs, and his sixth of over 200 runs, both Test records.In scoring 108 in the second innings of the first Test against England at Lord's in 2008, Smith participated in a seventh double-century opening partnership, again in conjunction with McKenzie, as South Africa fought to draw a Test which appeared lost.He also scored a second-innings 154 not out in the third Test at Edgbaston, to lead South Africa to a challenging target of 281, and with it South Africa's first series victory in England since 1965. The result provided Smith with personal vengeance against Michael Vaughan for denying South Africa a series victory in England in 2003 and defeating South Africa at home in 2004–5; Vaughan resigned as captain of England after the Edgbaston match, in an echo of Nasser Hussain's resignation at the instigation of Smith's batting five years earlier.
South Africa would later on go to Australia for a test and one day series that was billed as the 'heavyweight' series. It was the world champions Australia taking on the number two side South Africa with the series winner becoming world champions. In the first test match at Perth, South Africa chased down 414 runs with 6 wickets in hand. This was the second largest fourth innings total that was chased down in history and the highest on Australian soil. Graeme Smith broke his Australian hoodoo by leading from the front and scoring 108, his first century against Australia. He would also share a partnership with Hashim Amla.
In December 2008 he captained the first South African side that won a test series against Australia on their soil, in the course inflicting the first home defeat on the opponents in 16 years.
After South Africa lost to New Zealand in the quarter-finals of the 2011 World Cup, Smith resigned as ODI and Twenty20 captain. He was replaced by AB de Villiers.
Personality
He has had a difficult relationship with South African-born English batsman Kevin Pietersen. Graeme Smith once said "I'm patriotic about my country, and that's why I don't like Kevin Pietersen".This refers to Pietersen who was brought up in South Africa leaving the country to join England. Pietersen has described Graeme Smith as an "absolute muppet" in his book Crossing the Boundary.
Smith has also had problems with the former England Test captain Michael Vaughan during the 2004–05 England tour of South Africa over a dispute concerning bad light during the 4th test in Smith's native Johannesburg. In Vaughan's second book Calling the Shots Vaughan refers to Smith as "the witness". Vaughan lost his entire match fee for the match after the dispute.
Smith's relationship with the Australian cricketers and the public in the 2005/06 tour of Australia went on the wrong note. Smith was taunted by the fans as well as Matthew Hayden, Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. He was in the centre of media attention in Australia and was vilified for his behaviour.
On 7 January 2009, Smith received a standing ovation from the crowd when he batted in the second innings despite a broken hand in an attempt to save the Third Test. He fell with ten balls remaining and Australia won the Test.
Test Centuries Graeme Smith's
# Runs Match Against Country Venue/City Year
[1] 200 3 Bangladesh South Africa Buffalo Park, East London 2002
[2] 151 8 Pakistan South Africa Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town 2003
[3] 277 11 England England Edgbaston, Birmingham 2003
[4] 259 12 England England Lord's, London 2003
[5] 132 18 West Indies South Africa New Wanderers, Johannesburg 2003
[6] 139 21 West Indies South Africa SuperSport Park, Centurion 2004
[7] 125* 24 New Zealand New Zealand Basin Reserve, Wellington 2004
[8] 121 34 Zimbabwe South Africa Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town 2005
[9] 148 37 West Indies Trinidad and Tobago Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain 2005
[10] 104 38 West Indies Barbados Kensington Oval, Bridgetown 2005
[11] 126 39 West Indies Antigua and Barbuda Antigua Recreation Ground, St. John's 2005
[12] 133 56 Pakistan Pakistan Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore 2007
[13] 147 61 West Indies South Africa Sahara Stadium Kingsmead, Durban 2008
[14] 232 63 Bangladesh Bangladesh Chittagong Divisional Stadium, Chittagong 2008
[15] 107 67 England England Lord's, London 2008
[16] 154* 69 England England Edgbaston, Birmingham 2008
[17] 157 71 Bangladesh South Africa OUTsurance Oval, Bloemfontein 2008
[18] 108 73 Australia Australia WACA Ground, Perth 2008
[19] 183 80 England South Africa Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town 2010
[20] 105 81 England South Africa Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg 2010
[21] 132 85 West Indies Saint Kitts and Nevis Warner Park, Basseterre 2010
[22] 100 86 Pakistan United Arab Emirates DSC Cricket Stadium, Dubai 2010
[23] 104* 92 Australia South Africa Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town 2011
# Runs Match Against Country Venue/City Year
[1] 105 59 England South Africa Sahara Oval St George's, Port Elizabeth 2005
[2] 115* 61 England South Africa Buffalo Park, East London 2005
[3] 117 65 Zimbabwe South Africa Sahara Stadium Kingsmead, Durban 2005
[4] 103 66 West Indies Jamaica Sabina Park, Kingston 2005
[5] 134* 77 India India Eden Gardens, Kolkata 2005
[6] 119* 87 Australia South Africa SuperSport Park, Centurion 2006
[7] 103* 131 Bangladesh Bangladesh Chittagong Divisional Stadium, Chittagong 2008
[8] 141 144 England South Africa SuperSport Park, Centurion 2009
[9] 125 178 Sri Lanka South Africa New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg 2012
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