The namesake of Australia's incoming skipper at the Gabba on Wednesday was handed the reins by South Africa at the age of 22, and went on to not only steer his national team to the top of the international tree but become Test cricket's most successful captain with 53 wins before his retirement in March.

At 25, the Australian Smith has three years on the imposing former opener from Johannesburg but against India will still lead a team in which only three players are his junior. Kallis, in Sydney to begin his first campaign with the Thunder in the Big Bash League, says the achievements of his countryman proved that Smith could enjoy his own rich tenure despite his date of birth.

"I can only speak from an outsider's point of view that Steve looks like a guy that is well respected," Kallis said. "I don't know him in that team environment well enough to comment too much on that but certainly from Graeme's point of view he was very well respected within the team and almost from the day he walked in he had those leadership qualities. So we kind of knew he was going to get groomed for that and certainly as senior players we backed him 100 per cent.

"And to be fair he relied a lot on the senior players early on when he was making decisions and that and rightly so and then obviously learned as he went along. Being 22 years old, sure he made a lot of mistakes when he was a youngster but I think the big thing is he learnt from that and it made him into the captain that he was and in my eyes one of the better captains we've ever had. Graeme certainly turned out to be very successful and I don't think Steve will be too far behind that."

Kallis arrived in Sydney on Monday night with the city's attention on the Martin Place siege, and in Cape Town over the past few weeks has been deeply saddened by another tragic event, the death of Phillip Hughes.

"We went to bed the night that it happened almost expecting to wake up in the morning to say he's fine, he's out of ICU," he said. "To wake up to that news was certainly tragic. I don't think you ever play cricket and think your life is in danger. I think you know you can get hurt but I don't think you ever thought you could get killed."

After the darkness of Hughes' passing the bright and bombastic BBL begins this week – Kallis's Thunder start against Brisbane Heat at ANZ Stadium on Sunday night - and it's a competition he says he was drawn to "because I heard it was so much fun". At 39 he is in his twilight days as a cricketer but having played as recently as October's Champions League in India, one of the game's greatest players is not simply here for a holiday. "I still remember what the end of a bat looks like."