Smith turns on the charm

Published>Tue, Feb 02 10 11:13 AM

The banquet hall - a sea of red, with a whiff of rich perfume dominating the air inside while Kenny G played in the background - seemed more like a venue for a wedding reception rather than the first media briefing of what has been billed as the battle for the Test championship. But that wasn't the most unsettling thing about Graeme Smith's press conference here in Nagpur on Monday.

Historically, visiting captains from Australia and South Africa (including Smith), have invariably indulged in a few wise-crack warnings and damning predictions, resorting to everything that fell in the 'mindgames' category - especially when they have expected a serious challenge.
Perhaps Smith, who sauntered in exchanging pleasantries with everyone present, was taken in by the merry ambience on Monday, but neither did he point to any holes in the Indian batting line-up nor did he prop up his team's fast bowling prowess to any great extent. The generally forthright South African skipper - on his 29th birthday incidentally - simply added to all the good cheer around him, conceding that India were the favourites going into the two-match Test series that kicks off in Nagpur on Saturday.
"India are the No 1 Test team in the world presently. Any team which tours here always starts off as an underdog. India certainly are favourites but we will concentrate on our levels and standards and try to put pressure on them," said Smith, on his third tour to India as captain. Despite all the noise that has been made about the No.1 team taking on the No.2 team, he added that rankings certainly weren't something that was under any team's control always. "We had that mantle sometime back, when we beat Australia at home. Now India have taken it away and it would be great to take it back," said Smith, who was flanked by new coach Corrie Van Zyl and manager Dr Mohammed Moosajee.
For the first time in a long time, India will go into a Test series without the services of their most dependable batsman, Rahul Dravid. But Smith - surprisingly again - didn't harp on the issue for too long, limiting his views to a few complements about the mainstay of the Indian middle-order. "It will certainly be difficult to replace Rahul, who has scored over 10, 000 Test runs. No. 3 is also a key position, but there are other guys like Badrinath who are around," he said.
'Respect for Kirsten'
Even a question about the heavy presence of South Africans in the Indian coaching staff couldn't invoke a tongue-in-cheek remark from the Protean skipper, who simply lauded the efforts of Gary Kirsten, Paddy Upton and Eric Simons. "We have a lot of respect for them. I have had the privilege of playing alongside Gary, and have worked with Eric and Paddy on occasions in the past too," said the South Africa captain.
Even when asked to recount the horrors of the Kanpur wicket from the 2008 tour - which had drawn the ire of the ICC - Smith didn't throw in a jibe about all the controversies surrounding pitches in India of late. On the contrary, he went to the extent of calling the Kanpur wicket 'not that bad'. "A lot has changed in India over the last nine years since I started coming here. The country has been developing rapidly, but the pitches have always remained the same. But that is the same with any country, even in South Africa, touring teams are aware of what to expect," he said.
The South Africans take on Board President's XI in a three-day warm-up game starting Tuesday, which will be their only chance to acclimatise on this trip. The No.2 Test team in the world may have arrived in India to a red-carpet welcome, and Smith may have played genial ambassador to perfection, but the usually fiery South African skipper will be hoping that his team - and especially his pace brigade - don't follow suit over the next few weeks.

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