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Graeme Smith can afford to laugh, having led South Africa to victory in the one-day series against Australia to reclaim the top ranking.
Smith, 28, has matured into a fine captain but there have been some major bumps in the road along the way.
And he has been reminded about them a few times by Shane Warne, his one-time enemy who is now his captain-coach with Indian Premier League side the Rajasthan Royals.
The IPL’s five-week Twenty20 series starts on Saturday in Cape Town.
Smith and his South African teammates will have to catch morning flights from Johannesburg after Friday’s fifth and final day-night match against Ricky Ponting’s Australians at Johannesburg’s Wanderers Stadium.
Smith, who had a running battle with Warne in the media and on the field during the 2005-06 summer, has developed a warm relationship with the Australian leg-spin great.
Warne has publicly complimented Smith on his maturity and how the aggressive South African opener has learnt his lesson about letting his ego get in the way of tactical decisions.
After a long summer of combat against Australia, in which Smith has had both hands broken by pace bowler Mitchell Johnson, the inspirational skipper is looking forward to taking on a “player-only” role with the Royals under Warne’s captaincy.
Smith laughed on Thursday when asked if Warne would be employing a “four-captains” policy as controversially proposed by John Buchanan for his IPL side Kolkata.
“I think Warnie just wouldn’t implement it because it’s John Buchanan’s idea,” Smith grinned.
“I don’t have to do all the leadership roles but I have an integral part to play as a senior batter in the side.
“With that comes a huge amount of responsibility in that batting lineup.
“Being my own conditions it probably does mean that I’ll play a bigger role in terms of tactics and stuff.
“It’s just nice for me to go in there … not having to captain there’s a little bit less pressure so I can just go and play my natural game and hopefully play well for the Royals.”
While Warne and Smith have made up, it appears the spinner is still keeping his distance from his former national coach Buchanan, who recently admitted there is very little by way of conversation between the pair.
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