Former SA Cricketer Graeme Smith Denies Allegations Of Racism By Tsotsobe

Smith was "extremely hurtful" when he got to know about the allegations of racism made by Lonwabo Tsotsobe. Read what did the former South African captain say about the allegations.

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Cricket South Africa's Director of cricket and the former captain of their team, Greame Smith faced serious racism allegations from bowler Lonwabo Tsotsobe. He said that the former had threatened to retire if Thami Tsolekile was selected as a wicket-keeper in 2012. 

Mark Boucher was a long-standing wicket-keeper of South Africa, but his career was cut short after an unfortunate injury to his eye. After which Thami's name came up as a replacement, but as per Tsotsobe, Smith wanted De Villiers to be the team's wicket keeper. Smth said that he was deeply hurt by these allegations.

"The allegations and insinuations that have been made are extremely hurtful and I deny them in the strongest possible sense. Unfortunately, Thami was a wicket-keeper, which meant he was always only fighting for one position. I can understand how frustrating that must have been, and there have been several other excellent wicket-keepers that South African cricket never saw on an international stage, because keepers tend to stay in a team for long periods of time. That is also an international trend, not unique to South Africa," said Smith. 

"Thami was in the squad as reserve keeper to AB de Villiers and this was communicated to him on both the England and Australian tours by Gary Kirsten, which has been previously acknowledged by Thami," added Smith. 

Also, take a look at the statement by Tsotsobe: 

Tsolekile was destined to replace Boucher‚ but suddenly AB de Villiers was made the keeper. The wicketkeeper is a specialist position that needs a specialist, of which De Villiers is not. The idea of assigning keeping duties to De Villiers was to block the selection of a black player in the fold of Tsolekile. This was confirmed by Smith who categorically stated that if Tsolekile was selected he would retire with immediate effect."