Yes, their conservative approach has been the problem, and the last time around, Pollock's poor captaincy. Great player without a doubt, but one could see that he did not connect with his teammates. Smith, of course, is the complete opposite; if anything, he connects too much, but that's what SA needed. They now look more like a team than at any time in the past.

While I don't harbour any such personal dislike towards the big man, he was not one of my favourite characters either. His constant movement and talking on the field used to annoy me as it did thousands of others. But that was until I got and saw the '438' DVD. It is a 3-disc special edition with the final match extended to the full ball-by-ball 6 hours. In addition, there are interviews with and reactions of the players and that was when I realised how important Graeme Smith was to rest of the team. Whether we like him or not, he has held the team together and plays the leader role to the hilt....something guys like Cronje and Pollock never did and something that a highly talented team like the South Africans need to avoid another series of choking at a vital time.