Graeme Smith Height, Age, Girlfriend, Wife, Children, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Graeme Smith

• Graeme Smith grew up in Johannesburg to Scottish parents.

• He is a fan of Liverpool F.C.

• Graeme Smith has played for many cricket teams in South Africa.

• He played some matches for the Cape Cobras, but quit the team as he was busy with international cricket.

• Graeme Smith played 17 matches for Western Province and scored 1,312 runs in total. In these matches, he made four centuries and had a batting average of 46.85.

• He has played for other teams such as the United Cricket Board of South Africa Invitation XI and Western Province Boland.

• In 2002, Graeme Smith made his Test debut for South Africa against Australia in Cape Town.
  

  Graeme Smith during his Test debut for South Africa against Australia in 2002

• After the 2003 Cricket World Cup, Shaun Pollock stepped down as captain and Smith was chosen as the new captain.

• He had played only 8 Test matches and 22 One-Day Internationals before becoming captain.

• At the age of 22, Graeme Smith became the youngest South African to captain a Test match, which was against Bangladesh.

• During the 2003 tour of England, he scored two double centuries in back-to-back Test matches.

• He made 277 runs in the first Test at Edgbaston, which was the highest Test score by a South African until 2010. He beat the earlier record of 275 by Daryll Cullinan and Gary Kirsten.

• Graeme Smith then scored 259 runs in the second Test at Lord’s, which became the highest score by a visiting player at Lord’s. He beat Sir Donald Bradman’s 254 from 1930.

• Alec Stewart then praised him as ‘the most impressive 22-year-old’ he had seen in cricket.

• At first, Graeme Smith was seen as an inexperienced captain, but when his leadership skills improved, in 2005, he was chosen to captain the ICC World XI in a match against Australia.

• In 2003, 2008, and 2012, England captains Nasser Hussain, Michael Vaughan, and Andrew Strauss all ended their captaincies after they failed to win a series against Smith’s South African team during his tours.

• In 2005, South Africa won a Test series in the West Indies, where Graeme Smith scored centuries in three Test matches, i.e. 148 at Queen’s Park Oval, 104 at Kensington Oval, and 126 at Antigua.
  

  Graeme Smith after winning a Test series in the West Indies in 2005

• In 2005, in a Test series against South Africa, Dwayne Bravo from Trinidad scored his first Test century, i.e. 107 runs in the fourth Test in Antigua.

• Graeme Smith played county cricket for Somerset during the 2005 English cricket season.

• He played as the captain of Somerset for part of that season.

• Graeme Smith scored his first-ever triple century, i.e. 311 runs in 255 balls against Leicestershire at Taunton.

• He made 105 runs in a Twenty20 Cup match against Northamptonshire. The score became the 15th highest in the domestic Twenty20 Cup.

• Graeme Smith led Somerset to win the Twenty20 Cup trophy. In the final match, he scored 64 runs from 47 balls, not out.

• After that, Dwayne Bravo accused Graeme Smith of making a racist comment toward him. Then, a hearing was held, but no evidence was found. The charges against Smith were dropped.

• He then asked Bravo to apologise, but Bravo refused, with support from the West Indies Cricket Board.

• After that, the South African media criticised Bravo, but he received support in the Caribbean, where he worked for human rights.

• On 4 February 2007, in an ODI match against Pakistan, Smith hit six fours in one over bowled by Naved-ul-Hasan. He became the first player to do so in ODI history.

• On 29 February 2008, during a Test match in Chittagong against Bangladesh, Graeme Smith scored 232 and Neil McKenzie scored 226. They made a world-record 415-run opening partnership and beat the previous record of 413 set in 1956.
  

  Graeme Smith during a Test match in Chittagong against Bangladesh in 2008

• In December 2008, under his leadership, South Africa won their first-ever Test series in Australia.

• In 2008, Graeme Smith played in the first Indian Premier League (IPL) for the Rajasthan Royals and formed an opening batting partnership with Swapnil Asnodkar.

• Shane Warne, the Rajasthan Royals’ captain, said in a media conference that playing with Smith helped him see a different side of him than during international matches.

• On 7 January 2009, Graeme Smith received a standing ovation for batting with a broken hand in an attempt to save the third Test.

• He resigned as ODI and T20 captain after South Africa lost to New Zealand in the 2011 World Cup quarter-finals. Then, AB de Villiers took over as the new captain.

• Graeme Smith played his last first-class match for the Cape Cobras in 2010.

• On 1 November 2012, he became the captain of Surrey County Cricket Club for the 2013 season.

• Graeme Smith received his county cap on the first day of the 2013 championship match against Somerset.

• He recovered from an ankle injury to lead South Africa in a three-Test series against England in 2012.

• Graeme Smith became a successful Test captain in history with 53 Test wins and is the only captain to achieve over 50 Test wins. He passed Ricky Ponting’s record of 48.

• He then became the only player to captain 100 Test matches.

• In December 2019, Graeme Smith was appointed as the Director of Cricket for South Africa on a temporary three-month basis.

• In April 2020, his role was extended for two more years, until March 2022, after the IPL was postponed due to COVID-19. He worked in the position till 31 March 2022.
  

  Graeme Smith during his tenure as the Director of Cricket for South Africa

• After that, he did not apply for the position after the SJN (Social Justice and Nation-building) Hearings.

• In 2021, Graeme Smith faced racism allegations related to his time as a player and as Director of Cricket for South Africa.

• The case was highlighted during Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) Social Justice and Nation Building (SJN) public hearings.

• The SJN report claimed that Smith showed racially biased behaviour three times as Test captain and as CSA’s director.

• He blocked Thami Tsolekile from becoming the team’s wicket keeper after Mark Boucher’s injury. Smith supported AB de Villiers as the wicketkeeper.

• It was also claimed that Smith’s appointment as Director of Cricket did not follow CSA’s hiring policy.

• Reportedly, CSA CEO Thabang Moroe had personally selected Smith when the interview process was still ongoing.

• In 2022, two independent judges cleared Smith of all racism allegations. They found no proof that he acted with racial bias or discrimination.

• CSA also paid Smith’s legal costs for the arbitration.

• Graeme Smith holds the world record for captaining the most Test matches (109 in total). He captained 108 matches for South Africa and 1 for the ICC World XI.

• In June 2025, he was inducted into the International Cricket Council (ICC) Hall of Fame. He was one of seven new inductees announced. Mahendra Singh Dhoni from India and Hashim Amla from South Africa were also included.
  

  Graeme Smith while receiving the International Cricket Council Hall of Fame

• He likes travelling to distant places and playing golf in his free time.
  

  Graeme Smith while playing golf

• Graeme Smith is often spotted enjoying alcoholic beverages on various occasions.
  

  Graeme Smith while enjoying an alcoholic beverage with his friend

• He likes smoking cigars occasionally.
  

  Graeme Smith while smoking a cigar

• Graeme Smith is the only captain to lead more than 100 Test matches.

• He has the most Test match wins as captain, 53 victories.

• Graeme Smith scored 15 centuries in Test match wins, the most by any captain.

• He also holds the record for most catches (i.e. 82) by a non-wicketkeeper in Test wins.

• Graeme Smith is the fastest South African player to reach 1,000 Test runs.

• He scored the most Test runs as a captain, i.e. 8,659 runs.

• Graeme Smith set a T20I record of the highest partnership (84 runs for the first wicket) along with Jacques Kallis in their debut match.