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South Africa captain Graeme Smith will skip the one-day series in Australia in a bid to recover from an elbow injury in time for next month’s Test series at home against Ricky Ponting’s men.
But first the opening batsman wants to land one more killer blow on Australia, as a reminder of all the pain they caused him three years ago.
Smith came to Australia as a feisty, 24-year-old skipper in 2005-06. Not only was his side beaten 2-0, but he personally took a hammering from the Aussies on the field and in the media.
Returning as a mature 27-year-old whose batting and leadership skills have been crucial to his side’s success, Smith has the chance to snatch the top ranking from Australia if the Proteas can secure a 3-0 sweep of Australia in the third Test.
“We use the word we started as young upstarts. We have an opportunity and it’s only an opportunity to try to create a dynasty much like Australia did over the last couple of years and that starts for us right now in this Test match,” South Africa coach Mickey Arthur said on Thursday.
“We took our foot off the pedal once we had won the series in England and we lost the Test match at The Oval and battled to get momentum back.
“We don’t want the same to happen in Sydney so it’s definitely very much business as usual.”
Arthur says Smith has batted in enormous pain in Perth and Melbourne, scoring 48, 108, 62 and 75 to lead his side to an unbeatable 2-0 series lead.
“He is four to five cortisone injections down the line now. We thought it was going to work and it was the first option but it hasn’t,” Arthur said.
“He has got through on cortisone basically since Edgbaston … he goes through a huge amount of pain when he bats and it always seems to get worse when he gets to 40 or 50.
“The muscles get really tired and he almost can’t grip the bat with his top hand any more.
“Has an incredibly high pain threshold. It shows the guts and determination of the man that he has continued this long and is so desperate to play here.”
Smith will have a blood injection from his arm into his elbow tendon in a bid to use the body’s natural growth hormones to repair the injury. Arthur says it’s the “last roll of the dice” to avoid mid-year surgery.
Arthur said the blood-injection procedure hadn’t been performed in South Africa before and may need to be done in Australia firstly, with a second injection back home in South Africa.
South Africa are trying to squeeze Ashwell Prince back into their middle order, but the vice-captain is struggling to prove he has recovered from a thumb injury which has kept him out of the first two Tests.
Debutant replacement Jean-Paul Duminy has scored an unbeaten 50 and 166 but is set to be dumped if Prince is passed fit, although Prince didn’t bat for long in the nets on Thursday.
Spinner Johan Botha will captain South Africa’s one-day side in the five-match series starting in Melbourne on January 16.
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