Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer

Cape Town – The old “who ate all the pies?” jibe about the Proteas is about to lose some lustre … at least as far as the national captain is concerned.

A significantly slimmed-down Graeme Smith appeared at a Sahara Park Newlands media briefing on Tuesday, where the Cape Cobras announced their initial 20-strong squad for the maiden, US$6-million Champions League Twenty20 tournament in India from October 8 to 23.

And it is not an incidental occurrence – he told Sport24 afterwards it is part of his renewed desire to play for South Africa for “five or six more years”.

That is good news for the vast majority of South African cricket fans, as it would mean the big left-handed batsman, presently 28, potentially being available for the Proteas until the age of around 34, and possibly including two further World Cups: the 2011 one on the Subcontinent and the 2015 version scheduled for Australia and New Zealand.

Whether he would still be captain by his twilight years remains to be seen, as he has dropped increasing hints of late that he might relish the opportunity to focus squarely on his own game again -- having led South Africa since 2003 -- and was keen that captaincy succession plans gather pace.

While late-winter rain lashed down, leaving vast pools of water on the Newlands outfield, Smith said he had enjoyed the relative rarity of a meaningful off-season.

“As national captain you never really shut off unless you get a holiday, but the big thing for me was getting away from the emotional pressures, the pressures of winning games, scoring runs, practising, and just constantly being ‘ready’.

“Hopefully the break’s given me a bit of edge back. It’s been nice to train quite hard; I’ve been able to spend some time in the gym, get strong again, especially with the tennis-elbow issue I’ve had.

“I’m looking forward to the start of the season -- you feel the motivation coming back and get excited about playing cricket again.

“There was some time for me to free my mind of the game, although the surgery obviously took a bit of time and my book-launch tour was a bit more draining than I thought it would be!

“But there has been a lot of rest in between, certainly. I’m starting to get back into the mould now; we have a national selection meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) and then a camp for the Champions Trophy on August 28.”

Asked about his noticeably lean and mean look – physically, Smith is looking a lot closer again to the imposing young batsman who plundered two Test double centuries on the 2003 England tour – he replied: “Ja, I’m still in the process of getting there. A couple more weeks will help get me really ready.

“I’ve been working hard here with Rob Walter, the new SA fitness trainer, and with the people at Province.

“So it feels like I’m back as an 18- or 19-year-old again, grafting hard. But I really want to give myself the best opportunity to play for five or six years more for South Africa. I want to be fit enough to achieve that.”

The opening batsman told the briefing it had been an exciting day for him, ahead of the press conference, because he “started hitting some tennis balls” for the first time since his elbow operation.

“Hopefully I’ll have progressed a lot further by the Proteas training camp, and be ready for full net practices.

“There’s always that wait-and-see factor when you’ve wrestled with a condition like mine (for a while) but I’ve had the surgery now and medically I understand it’s a definite fix.

“It’s mainly now about getting the muscles back up to the standard required for playing some long innings.”