"Extremely hurtful"- Graeme Smith responds to racism allegations made by Lonwabo Tsotsobe
Former South African seamer Lonwabo Tsotsobe recently accused Graeme Smith of using his captaincy powers in the South African team for racial discrimination.
The former Proteas skipper came out with a statement in defense saying the accusations were "extremely hurtful" and denied them in the "strongest possible sense."
Tsotsobe claimed that Graeme Smith ensured South African wicketkeeper Thami Tsolekile didn't get a chance in the Test team. The bowler went on to add that Smith threatened to retire in 2012 if Tsolekile went on to play for South Africa.
However, Graeme Smith, who is currently the director of South Africa cricket, strongly denied such claims.
"The allegations and insinuations that have been made are extremely hurtful and I deny them in the strongest possible sense. Unfortunately, Thami was a wicket-keeper, which meant he was always only fighting for one position. I can understand how frustrating that must have been, and there have been several other excellent wicket-keepers that South African cricket never saw on an international stage, because keepers tend to stay in a team for long periods of time. That is also an international trend, not unique to South Africa.”
Graeme Smith further added:
"I should emphasise that I was never in charge of selections. I had an opinion as a captain, but the casting vote was with the coach and the selectors. In the case of the 2012 tour to England, which Thami has alluded to, there was a whole panel of selectors.
"Thami was in the squad as reserve keeper to AB de Villiers and this was communicated to him on both the England and Australian tours by Gary Kirsten, which has been previously acknowledged by Thami.”
Graeme Smith retired from all forms of international cricket in 2014. The left-handed batsman is widely regarded as one of the finest captains ever, and the person who took South African cricket forward in the early 2000s after various match-fixing allegations had rocked the rainbow nation.
What did Lonwabo Tsotsobe say in his statement about Graeme Smith?
Lonwabo Tsotsobe was handed an eight-year ban in 2017 for being involved in a match-fixing scandal.
The former left-arm pacer recently submitted his statement to the CSA Social Justice, where he claimed Graeme Smith had promoted AB de Villiers to don the wicketkeeper's role to stop Tsolekile from making a comeback in the team.
“Tsolekile was destined to replace Boucher‚ but suddenly AB de Villiers was made the keeper. The wicketkeeper is a specialist position that needs a specialist, of which De Villiers is not. The idea of assigning keeping duties to De Villiers was to block the selection of a black player in the fold of Tsolekile. This was confirmed by Smith who categorically stated that if Tsolekile was selected he would retire with immediate effect,” Tsotsobe said.
Thami Tsolekile played only three Tests for South Africa. The wicketkeeper-batsman was handed a 12-year ban in 2016 for being involved in a match-fixing scandal in South Africa's Ram Slam T20 competition.