Rating the last five South African Test captains 

#1 Graeme Smith

South Africa became the best Test side in the world under Graeme Smith

Ever since Hansie Cronje's cricket career ended in disgrace back in 2000, South African cricket had been hankering for a captain who could muster the same sort of leadership qualities that had made the former captain such a success.

However, the appointment of Graeme Smith in 2003 proved to be a masterstroke as he ushered in an era of unprecedented success for the team in the Test arena. He is the youngest Test captain in South Africa's history and when Smith was made captain at the age of 22, there was widespread concern that the administrators had made a poor decision.

All that was put to rest when South Africa drew the away series against England 2-2 in the summer and Smith himself scored heavily to cement his authority on the team.

Over the course of his 11-year reign as skipper, South Africa became the best Test side in the world and won games everywhere. He remains the most successful Test match captain in the history of the game, with a superb record of 53 Test wins in 108 games.

No other captain has reached the figure of 50 Test wins. In addition to that, he made South Africa an extremely hard team to beat and he led from the front. No other captain has surpassed his figure of 15 centuries in Tests which the team won and it will take something special for South Africa or for that matter any other team to come up with a captain, who could be as good as Smith.