Illness can't stop captain Smith

There isn't much you can't tell about Graeme Smith by looking at him: he is the straightforward man he seems to be, a bloke who gets on with the job and does it with gusto.

Asked after South Africa's series- clinching win over New Zealand at Newlands at the weekend whether the viral infection that has afflicted him for the past few weeks would require surgery, Smith was quick on the draw.

"I hope not," he said with juicy humanity. Smith had played the match with an enlarged spleen, which makes diving around a cricket ground an awkward business.

For much of the month since he returned from South Africa's tour of Pakistan, he has felt faint and suffered sudden lapses in concentration.

But he wasn't about to dawdle down that tangent in the afterglow of his team's handsome win.

"It's nothing that I want to sit here and complain about," he said. "I'm not going to wax lyrical about being sick."

Clearly, the virus has met its match. "It was good to get through it and to be on the field to lead the guys," Smith said.

"Sometimes that meant digging a little bit deeper, but we all go through those phases in our careers."

Smith remains prone to parking one of his big feet in his mouth - his ill-timed whinge this season about South Africa's pitches is securely in that category - but not this time. He dealt with what could have developed into a damaging distraction from what mattered, and moved on.

Smith has matured steadily since having the national captaincy shoved at him in the wake of South Africa's dismal 2003 World Cup campaign.

Graham Ford, the former South African coach, agrees that Smith has come a long way since those giddy days.

"He's progressed magnificently, particularly when you consider that he had to step up to the plate immediately," said Ford.

"He leads from the front, when his team goes to war he doesn't shy away. Tactically, he's improved a lot. But it's like any job - the longer you do it the better you become at it."

Smith's detractors paint him as a tactical dunce who picks the wrong gameplan and then sticks with it for too long before he realises he has made a mistake.

But Ford is not among those who sneer at Smith. "There were a few tactical issues about his captaincy to start with, but they have become fewer," he said.

"We must remember that he had hardly played outside of South Africa when he became captain. Now he has played all around the world and you can't help but learn from that experience."

Another criticism of Smith has been that his team tends to fall apart against Australia.

"Not too many teams manage to beat Australia often," said Ford. "The fact that South Africa also haven't done so often doesn't make Graeme a bad captain."

The facts back up Ford's assertions. South Africa have won 22 of Smith's 50 Tests as captain, drawn 13 and lost the remaining 15.

Smith's batting average in Tests that South Africa have won is 57.76 compared to his overall average of 46.35.

In one-day internationals, South Africa have won 58 games and lost 38 under Smith's captaincy. He has scored all six of his centuries in matches his team has won, and he averages 52.73 when South Africa are victorious. Overall, his one-day average is 39.81.

There is much to admire about his forthright approach; a Henry V for the modern age, urging his players "once more unto the breach". For others, the jutting chin and gum-chewing makes Smith an oaf who has no place leading a line of marching ants, much less an international team.

It can't be easy being Graeme Smith. But it surely isn't boring.