End of an era as Graeme Smith retires from test cricket
South Africa captain will be missed for his prowess with the bat and his leadership
He was seen as a brash, arrogant and aloof South African but no one can dispute the impact Graeme Smith had on the world stage as he became the most successful captain in test history.
Smith announced his sudden retirement from international cricket on Monday.
It was he who resurrected the team after a match-fixing scandal involving former skipper Hansie Cronje and a disastrous World Cup on home soil in 2003.
Given control of the underperforming and fiercely criticised national team at 22, he went on to play over 100 tests. He was captain for more than a decade and established South Africa as the No 1 test team in the world, although he couldn't end their long wait for a World Cup title.
This has been the most difficult decision I have ever had to make in my life
"This has been the most difficult decision I have ever had to make in my life," Smith said in a statement via Cricket South Africa.
His decision, just nine weeks after Jacques Kallis quit, will usher in a new era for South African cricket, which now finds itself shorn of experience and potentially in a leadership crisis. The 33-year-old's runs at the top of the order will be missed but so too will his strength of character and grit in adversity.
While many South African cricket fans have struggled to warm to him, few would dispute he deserves a place among the game's greats as he has won a record 53 tests as captain, many of those thanks to his own prowess with the bat.
Never the most elegant to watch, he bludgeoned his way to 27 test centuries, five of them double-hundreds, the last of which came in October, against Pakistan.
It is his ability to grind out fourth-innings runs that made him so well respected in the international game. Sadly he was out for just three runs yesterday in his final innings.
He led his side to two series wins in Australia and one in England in 2012 that took the team to the summit of world cricket.
Despite staring at a series defeat to Australia in his final test match, he leaves the side at the very top of the game.
Smith had spoken in the build-up to the third test of still having the passion and desire for international cricket, of wanting to achieve more with this team.
A fifth batting failure in as many innings in the series may have led to him re-evaluating his future plans.
There have only been a handful of regular captains of the national side since South Africa's readmission to international cricket in 1991 - Kepler Wessels, Cronje, Shaun Pollock and Smith.
Choosing the right man to be number five on that list will be crucial.
One-day skipper AB de Villiers has been groomed for the test role and is likely take on the job but it is a big task for a player who at times has been the mainstay of the batting and also acts as wicketkeeper. But in truth there are no other solid candidates.
