Retirements that left the Cricketing World in shock

#4 Graeme Smith

Smith holds the World record of leading a Test side in 109 matches.

A veteran of 117 Tests, with 109 (a world record) of them coming in as the leader of his country, Graeme Smith's shock retirement sent the entire cricketing world in a tizzy.

Smith, 33, announced his retirement, revealing the news to his teammates in the middle of the 2014 Australia's Test tour of South Africa, in which he had struggled against the pace of Mitchell Johnson, having scrapped to just 45 runs in six innings.

A veteran of 117 Test matches, Smith was handed over the captaincy at a tender age of 23, with just eight Test matches under his belt.

Smith's captaincy mirror imaged his personality; tenacious, strong, and aggressive. His finest hour as captain will forever be the back-to-back overseas Test series wins in England and Australia in 2007/08 and 2012/13 season.

He had a plethora of daddy hundreds including twin double-hundreds in England back in 2003, Smith's tenacity and baptism with fire was on full display when he walked out to bat with a broken hand in a bid to save the Test match for his side.

In 117 Test matches, Smith accumulated 9265 runs at an average of 47.76 that included 27 hundred and five double tons.