Nagpur, March 12: Robin Jackman, South Africa commentator and cricket expert, believes that Graeme Smith has grown into a colossus of a leader of the South Africa cricket team.

In an exclusive interview with bcci.tv, Jackman spoke of Smith’s legacy as ODI captain and also about South Africa’s inability to handle pressure in tight situations.

On Graeme Smith playing his last tournament as captain of the South Africa ODI team

I think he’s grown into the captaincy because he took it on when he was a very young man. Now, he’s a bit of a colossus. I think he has become a really good leader of men. He sets examples which are good to follow. I find him a different sort of skipper to when he first started. Inasmuch as his overall dealings with many different things [is concerned], and some of them are not always on the field, he has been brilliant. I think the team will miss him when he stands down as captain, he will carry on playing. He’s probably doing the job as well as he could possibly do it right now. And obviously it would be great if he can manage to take the trophy home from this series [2011 ICC World Cup] and finish on a huge high, rather than in a disappointing way. But yes, the legacy he has left behind is that whoever takes over from him will have learnt quite a lot from him. And when I say that, I don’t necessarily mean that just tactically, from a pure cricket point of view, but from all the other issues that he has to deal with.

On the next possible ODI captain of South Africa

Well, obviously the favourite is Johan Botha. He took over from Graeme when he was injured. He also captains the Twenty20 side so, I would think, the natural progression would be to go to him - but that’s not a given. It’s a decision that has to be made by the powers-that-be.

On South Africa not being as consistent an ODI outfit vis-à-vis their Test performances

I think consistency is one of the toughest things to produce in limited overs cricket because there is a lottery angle to it. If one bloke plays particularly well, or two, on a day, they can put you as a team out of the match no matter how strong you are. I would say, probably, the most consistent ODI side over the last decade would be Australia. They managed to do that.

South Africa have, in this particular series, got quite a lot of changes in their makeup of the team. They’ve come and they’ve played three spinners on one occasion which is unheard of. They didn’t used to play any. So they are going through a bit of a phase as to what their best eleven is. I think they’ve got a very good squad out here with the exception of one or two, but there’s always going to be one or two. Outside of that, it’s coming down to what’s our best eleven. They’ve left Botha out for two matches and he’s possibly the most economical of the spinners in the squad. Imran Tahir has come on the scene like a thunderbolt and done very well which has been terrific for South Africa but has also added a problem. Do we go with six batsmen and three spinners or do we still go with seven batsmen and only two spinners? And if so, who’s going to sit out? So there’s all those permutations that they’ve got to come up with. And their quick bowlers do run a little bit hot and cold from time to time. There will be days when they will be devastating. There will be days when they get challenged by somebody who is intimidating to bowl at, at the best of times, like Virender Sehwag.

I think the key to World Cup cricket is peaking at the right time. If they were to lose to India in this game at Nagpur, it’s not like their tournament’s over with. They’ve got Ireland and Bangladesh to beat. South Africa would be favourites in the match. The time to be on song is for the quarter-finals, then in the semi-finals and then again in the final. So doing it all too soon doesn’t always work.

On why South Africa consistently choke under pressure

My answer to everybody who brings up this dreadful word is that you’ve got to be a pretty good team to be in a good position to win a game to be called chokers. You don’t find bad sides being called chokers because they’re not any good in the first place. So the very fact that they’ve been in winning positions and they haven’t quite got across the line applies to South Africa and somebody gave them that name. I can think of a dozen other one-day internationals where I’ve seen teams in winning positions, where they haven’t managed to get across the line and that name doesn’t apply to them. So once you pick it up, once you’ve got that label, what do you have to do to stop it? If they went on to win this World Cup they would get rid of that name. But as soon they get into a good position to win the next time and they don’t win, it would be back. So it’s all about whether you do get over the line. In the game against England, they were out of the game completely. They were dead and buried at 127 for seven and then all of a sudden they only needed 12 and they should have won, could have won, but didn’t. Because the two guys who put on the partnership, both got out. So it was left to Nos. 10 and 11. That’s not choking, that’s cricket.

On the absence of Mark Boucher from the tournament

Well, if AB de Villiers was keeping wicket in all these matches, I would have answered the question very differently. But Morne van Wyk is a specialist wicketkeeper. That’s what he does for his franchise back in South Africa. So they do have a regular wicketkeeper playing most of the matches now. AB has kept wicket in only one match [against West Indies]. I was very surprised that Mark Boucher was left out of the squad. I was one of the people that said they needed his experience and his expertise in India. He’s been here a hundred times, he knows how to bat here and he certainly knows how to keep wicket. Otherwise, he would not be the No. 1 record breaker [most dismissals as a wicketkeeper] in the world. But we can’t say that South Africa don’t have a regular wicketkeeper because they do in Morne van Wyk.