“They didn’t speak to each other; when they did, they were fighting” - AB de Villiers discloses dressing room secret about former captain-coach tussle
South African batting legend AB de Villiers has revealed that the former Proteas captain-coach combo of Graeme Smith and Ray Jennings did not get along with each other at all.
He added that the two hardly spoke to each other and when they did, they were often fighting, which made for an 'interesting' scenario in the South African dressing room.
Jennings was South Africa’s coach for a brief period in 2004-05, while Smith captained the Proteas for a decade after being appointed captain in 2003 at the young age of 22.
De Villiers made the revelation regarding Jennings and Smith while discussing the appointment of Andy Flower as the new Royal Challengers Bangalore head coach. Flower will reunite with Bangalore captain Faf du Plessis in the IPL. They had earlier worked together for St Lucia Kings in the CPL, where they made the final in 2021.
While sharing his views on why a captain and coach need to be on good terms with each other, De Villiers went on to disclose the equation between Smith and Jennings. The former South African captain said on his YouTube channel:
“I saw Andy Flower actually posting about wanting to work with Faf and being very excited to work with him. It’s always a good thing. When the coach and captain work really well together, it feeds off into the team. It’s really important for the players to feel the trust, feel that the captain and the coach are on the same ship, heading in the same direction."
He continued:
“I’ve played in teams before … Ray Jennings, when Graeme Smith used to be captain, the two of them they literally didn’t speak to each other. When they did, they were fighting. It was really interesting. I won’t say it really affected the team. We sort of interacted more with Graeme.
"Even though I had enjoyed Ray’s approach of coaching so much, Graeme was part of the boys and in the team. But the two of them didn’t talk, and it was a very interesting dynamic back in the day,” De Villiers continued.
Smith holds the record for most Test wins as captain. He led South Africa in 109 games, winning 53 and losing 29.
About Ray Jennings
A former keeper-batter, Jennings featured in 159 first-class games from 1973-74 to 1992-93, scoring 4160 runs at an average of 23.90, with three hundreds and 15 fifties.
Jennings also played 148 List A games from 1980-81 to 1992-93, scoring 1152 runs at an average of 20.21, including two half-centuries.