I Retired Young But I Have No Regrets - Graeme Smith

Graeme Smith was one of the few players, who got the captaincy reigns at a very young age. He led the team successfully across the formats and always been among the run-scorers for his country. But, all of a sudden, when he was at peak of his career, he took his retirement from the game. Meanwhile, Smith reveals that there are no regrets for him.

Graeme Smith retired at the age of 33 years. He was at peak of his career and still got a good 2-3 years left in him to serve the country. But, his personal things in life haven’t gone as planned, which saw Smith to take such a shocking retirement. However, he is happy to take the call and no regrets in calling it quit way too earlier.

‘I retired young, at 33 – and probably had a good couple of years left in me. I had a very full career, having captained my country since the age of 22. But 11 years in that job does certainly take its toll. Life situations weren’t simple at that stage – getting divorced and my daughter got burnt with hot water,’ Smith told Rayder Media.

‘I think the whole situation I was facing was sort of mounting on me with the emotional and mental stress I was under. We had built that environment into a very successful one through time with [former coaches] Mickey Arthur and Gary Kirsten – and we were a very high-performing team.

Russell Domingo was an inexperienced coach – Graeme Smith

Further, the stylish southpaw quoted that the team recruited the young Domingo as head coach in place of Gary Kirstein, who is relatively new to the role. He felt that it was like taking back the team to 10 years back and starting again. Smith believes that it also made an impact on him to quit the game.

‘When [former coach] Russell Domingo [came in], I just honestly didn’t have the energy to go back 10 steps and start all over again. He was a very inexperienced coach. There were a lot of things happening that you just moved away from. It all culminated in a situation where the timing was right and I decided to walk away from the game,” he added.

I am pretty proud:

Despite missing out a couple of years for the team, Smit is quite proud of his achievements. He led the team for a good 11 years of time, which is quite an achievement. Smith added that he will keep on recollecting those memories, which he had in the South African dressing room.

‘I have no regrets. I look back – it was an incredible time when things were created and I was able to achieve things. I’m pretty proud and I don’t find myself pondering on a daily basis about the “what ifs”. I just keep remembering the magnificent times I was fortunate to have in South African cricket,” he added.

Smith played 117 Tests between 2002 and 2014 – and was recently surpassed by the veteran Hashim Amla as South Africa’s second-highest run-scorer in the longest format. Currently, he can be seen in the commentary section.