Surrey are definitely interested in signing Smith to a multi-year contract

England county side Surrey have offered South Africa Test captain Graeme Smith a lucrative multi-year contract, which could potentially see him retiring from international cricket.

Surrey believe Smith is the perfect candidate to captain the side and open the batting after the retirement of Mark Ramprakash, the tragic death of Tom Maynard and the departure of former captain Rory Hamilton-Brown.

It is not difficult to see why Surrey have shown a lot of interest in Smith since he has played more than a 100 Test matches for his country, survived the challenge from three England captains, who all resigned after a series against Smith’s South Africa side and recently he scored a century in his 100th Test against the English at The Oval.

Smith has been considering the offer from Surrey since it would allow him to finally settle down after marrying his wife from Ireland and witnessing the birth of his first child.

However, even though Smith has achieved what every cricketer hopes to in the Test format, his desire to win a World Cup still burns bright.

It is possible that Surrey would gladly sign Smith as their overseas player and allow him to report for international duty whenever he was needed, but according to a source in South Africa, the county club are reluctant to sign the South African captain if he constantly has to put his country ahead of them.

South Africa are scheduled to play in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy in England in June before heading to Sri Lanka for a tour in July.

Surrey refused to comment on the ongoing situation.