Retired Smith prioritizes family over cricket, says won`t play for Ireland

Johannesburg: Retired South Africa captain Graeme Smith is reportedly influenced by his family in taking his decision of retiring from international cricket.

Smith, who married Irish pop singer Morgan Deane in 2011 and also has an Irish citizenship, said that he has no intentions of playing for his second country and added that if he is going to play for anyone, it would be the `Proteas`. Smith, whose 18-month-old daughter suffered burns from hot water, has said that he knew he had made the right decision while at the hospital bedside of his daughter and added that the toddler had reached out to him and touched his Proteas badge, the report added. According to the Dawn, Smith added that his daughter watches him on the TV and the moment she touched his badge he realised that he is pretty `happy` with the decision he has taken. Smith reportedly shocked the cricketing world last week when he announced that he would quit international cricket following South Africa`s Test series against Australia. Smith has said that his retirement would give him more time to watch his children grow and he would be `mentally more there` adding that as a captain, even when a player is at home his brain is elsewhere most of the time. Smith has captain the South African team for 12 years since the age of 22 and is reportedly the most capped Test captain in cricket`s history with 9,262 Test runs at an average of 48.9 with 27 hundreds and 38 half-centuries, the report added.