“My earliest memory of falling in love with cricket…”: Former SA skipper Graeme Smith

Cape Town [South Africa], September 10 (ANI): Former South African captain Graeme Smith, reminisced on what made him fall in love with cricket and also talked about his days as a cricketer in his school days.

The Proteas legend was speaking to ANI on Monday about the upcoming third season of the domestic franchise league SA20, from January 9 next year,, and the launch of Schools SA20, a program by SA20 and Cricket South Africa (CSA) designed to discover and nurture cricket talent among both girls and boys across the country.

Speaking to ANI during the interaction, the league’s commissioner Smith said that seeing Proteas in the 1992 World Cup for the first time since the country’s re-introduction of world cricket following a ban due to its racial Apartheid policy, created a dream in him and many other young boys like him to represent the rainbow nation in cricket.

Smith also credited his school, King Edward VII School in Johannesburg, for the role they played in the cricket journey of him and other international-level talents like Quinton de Kock, Neil McKenzie, Stephen Cook, etc.

“Obviously, there are a lot of cricketers that came through KES. They come down to school, you got to see them. For me, my earliest memory of falling in love with cricket was when South Africa came back to sport and played against India (for a tour in 1992-93) and seeing the team in coloured clothing in 1992 World Cup for the first time as a youngster. That created a dream for us. At the age of 15 or 16, I was just focused on wanting to become a professional cricketer. It was my dream, and I was fortunate enough to get there fairly young as well,” said Smith.

Talking about his school cricket days at KES, Smith said that though he grew up in a small school in South Africa, he was fortunate enough to move to KES later on, an institution he described as having a “great cricketing heritage.”.

“So many great cricketers have come through that school. It was very fortunate that I ended up there as it gave me a great platform. I played for the SAU19 and SA Schools teams. To get that opportunity and play that young professionally, you cannot get all that without exposure. That is what we are trying to do with Schools SA20–to give kids the opportunity and exposure so that they can see cricket as a future,” he added.

Smith, the youngest SA Test captain at the age of 22 years and 82 days and once the youngest skipper in Test history, is considered one of the finest batters of all time. In 347 international matches from 2002-2014, Smith scored 17,236 runs at an average of 42.34, with 37 centuries, 90 fifties, and the best score of 277. He is also regarded as one of the finest captains of all time.

Schools SA20, an exciting national competition, will run from September 2024 to March 2025, with schools from all 16 provinces competing for the coveted title of Schools SA20 champions.

Over 370 boys’ school teams and more than 200 girls’ school teams will participate, with over 1000 matches being played. SA20 and CSA have shattered the glass ceiling with the launch of the dedicated girls’ competition, reflecting a commitment to advancing women’s cricket in South Africa. The girls’ competition will also be a key part of the Proteas’ U19 Girls team’s preparation for the ICC U19 Women’s World Cup in Malaysia in 2025.

The competition will be conducted in three phases: Phase 1: Provincial Competitions (September-November 2024), Phase 2: Regional Playoffs (January-February 2025), Phase 3: National Finals (March 13-15, 2025)

On the Schools SA20 program, Smith said that this initiative will help in the arrival of a nationwide school programme, as compared to more regionalised ones earlier.

“I think there are strong sporting schools in South Africa. I think what we have tried to do is we saw the opportunity that there was not a national school programme that rolled out for cricket. It was fairly regionalised, so what we are trying to do is make sure that we increase our investment into the talent pipeline to expose kids at school to cricket to give them an opportunity,” said Smith.

“We are going to start with over 500 schools, both girls and boys and there will be 1000 games in school season across the board and it is a significant investment of time and money to help grow the talent pipeline at a young age. We want to expose them to cricket. We want them to choose cricket; we want them to love cricket; and we want to bring you new young superstars through. We are also looking for our 16-year-old Sachin Tendulkar. Hopefully, we can find one,” he added.

On the third season of SA20, Smith said that he is even more excited this time around because of the quality of international stars that will be coming to South Africa for the league, such as Ben Stokes, Joe Root, Kane Williamson, Dinesh Karthik, Devon Conway, etc.

“Going into season three, we have seen South African players go from strength to strength. We have seen new players come through and perform. And then you throw in these big names and it starts to look like a very exciting season,” he added.

Smith is excited at the idea of South African youngsters getting to interact with top national and overseas names. Mentioning the wicketkeeper-batter Heinrich Klaasen, he went on to call him as the “best white-ball batter in the world”.

“I said from the start that we want to see cricket get stronger every year. The quality of international players coming this year is outstanding. Our local talents and rookies to be exposed to these types of players is huge. I mean, Klaasen is the best white-ball player in the world. You think about Rabadas (Kagiso Rabada) and we have got players like David Miller and Aiden Markram. Looking at this, you know it is going to be a quality season. When you look down at the names in each team, you know how competitive it is going to be,” he added.

In the final of season two, Sunrisers Eastern Cape, led by Aiden Markram, beat Durban Super Giants (DSG) in February this year. It features six teams: MI Cape Town, Durban Super Giants, Sunrisers Eastern Cape, Joburg Super Kings, Paarl Royals, Pretoria Capitals.