Q & A: Smith on his love for Lord's, the Aussies and Proteas spearhead Rabada

INDEPENDENT Media’s ZAAHIER ADAMS, who will be covering the World Test Championship final between the Proteas and Australia at Lord’s, sits down exclusively with former captain Graeme Smith.

- ZAAHIER ADAMS

Smith shares his vast experience of the unique challenge of facing Australia, the charms of Lord’s, and speculates about the make-up of the Proteas starting XI...

Graeme, we’re here at the Betway SA20 office, how is the day job going these days?

It’s actually unbelievable the amount of people that think when our season finishes that the work comes to an end. You get asked, what are you doing now? I've got a really good team at SA20 and working hard already on hopefully improving a number of things and getting things right for Season 4.

But before that gets underway, there's quite a big thing happening in South African cricket the next couple of weeks, the World Test Championship final, with the Proteas playing for the golden mace, something you know a little bit about ...

I’ve been fortunate to get my hands on the mace a few times. The thing about the mace is to get there and get your hands on it, the amount of toil and hard work that goes into achieving that No 1 status in Test cricket.

Travelling the world, you've got to have a team that can handle pressure for five days, that can handle the mental state and perform the skills consistently in many different conditions. It’s a reward of performance over a period of time. It's great that South Africa are back in that place with the opportunity to get their hands on it.

The opposition is none other than the arch-enemy Australia. A team you enjoyed many a battle with. So, let's rewind to your debut series in 2001, you receive a verbal barrage, and you speak about it publicly afterwards...

Tt came back to a bit of innocence as well, naivety. I think for me, playing against that great Australian team, making my debut as a youngster at 21 years old, and then performing reasonably well in a cauldron like that when it was so highly pressurised,