Kagiso Rabada is facing a one-Test ban for giving Joe Root an angry send-off in Port Elizabeth.
Rabada was sanctioned by the ICC for an angry celebration at the face of opposition captain Joe Root after taking his wicket in the third Test in Port Elizabeth. And Smith, the director of cricket, reckons that uncontrolled roar could be down to him feeling the team pressure as he is already Proteas' most overworked bowling asset at the age of just 24.
"It can't happen anymore. He is disappointed," ESPNcricinfo quoted Smith as saying. "There is an element of consistency from the ICC we need to get and understand but we cannot have our gun bowler missing games for these type of things anymore."
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"He is a poster boy and we need to develop more poster boys. Too much has been put on his shoulders as well. He is on every ad, playing every game, he is carrying the can. If he doesn't perform well, we are in trouble."
"I think it's a good thing he is being rested in this series, we need to see some other people step up and start filling that void and taking some pressure off him. Maybe that will help as well," he added.
This, not to suggest that the former skipper is excusing the on-field behaviour of Rabada, whom he expects to learn quickly where to direct his emotions. "It's learning how to channel that emotion in the moment, when your adrenaline is pumping and you have put in the hard work," Smith said.
"How does he channel that better? How does he become a charismatic man for the environment and the crowd without transgressing? These are things that hopefully we will be able to guide him but also in those moments on the field, with that instinct, how he responds is important."
"Sometimes you do get hot-headed, we have all been there, on the field, when your emotions are running high, you're in the moment, it's a battle between you and the top batter, and vice-versa, and that's got to come now. He is experienced enough to know how to channel that and that's what we've got to get out of him."
A rare gap in the schedule will do Rabada a world of good as he is about to also skip the ODI series against England, beginning February 4 in Cape Town. "In this period where he is going to have an extra week off and rest the one-day series - KG works extremely hard, he is extremely professional - we will be having discussions on channelling his emotions better and still being that aggressive fast bowler that South African cricket needs," Smith said.
In the long-run, however, as per Smith's assertion, Rabada needs more people in the bowling unit to share his workload.
"He does need support from players around him and needs people to come through and carry some of that can so that he doesn't always feel he is the ultimate guy that needs to deliver," Smith said. "We need to have more players around him. We need to get people like Lungi permanently on the field and fit and so on, carrying that can with him."
(Inputs from ESPNcricinfo)