Smith is excited about how great his team’s legacy can become

South Africa captain Graeme Smith has announced that he wants his current team to build a “legacy” as the number one Test team.

The Proteas are currently facing Australia in a three-Test series and will have to win or draw in order to retain their world number one Test team ranking.

Sport24 quoted Smith as saying: “We would love the opportunity to create a legacy. You have to take steps at a time, in international cricket today there have been a number of teams that have touched the No 1 ranking and certainly we would love to have that opportunity and we know that this is the next stepping stone for us and it is a big challenge, we are not getting too far ahead of ourselves, we believe we have the capabilities to create that but you have to earn it and take those steps towards the process. The next three to four weeks is that big challenge for us.”

With their national selectors constantly keeping the same players in the team and after having lost no matches abroad since 2006, South Africa definitely seem like the favourites to win their Test series against Australia.

South Africa’s win against England over the summer showed the cricketing world just how dominant their batting and bowling lineups were and it also provided an insight into just how calm and cool the Proteas players were during highly intense situations.

“The Test side has proven that. When you play in other people’s backyards and with the crowds, there is a different sort of pressure and you need to be able to handle certain things that come your way, in recent memory in England we were able to show that we were able to perform under pressure and we were able to stand up in key times. I guess when good teams play each other there are those small margins and you need to be able to handle those margins better than the other team if you are going to be victorious,” Smith added.