Graeme Smith Appointed South Africa's Director Of Cricket Till 2022
Published - 17 Apr 2020, 05:16 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:05 AM
Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith was on Friday appointed as Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) director of cricket for an initial period of two years, which concludes in April 2020, the cricket board announced in a statement. CSA Acting Chief Executive Dr. Jacques Fau was impressed with his interim stint and hope Graeme Smith continues to make huge impact with his role.
“Graeme has made a huge impact with his energy, expertise, hard work ethic and characteristic determination and passion he has brought to the position during the six months he has served in an acting capacity,” CSA Acting Chief Executive Dr. Jacques Faul said according to an official media release.
“Although there is certainly a great deal of work to be done, as reflected by the performances of our various national teams, he has certainly put our cricket on an upward trajectory that provides light at the end of the tunnel.
“He has bought into all the overall pillars of our strategy and that includes the important one of transformation. As far as the technical and support teams he has put together are concerned, the black generic component amounted to more than 70 percent across the board and the Black African component varied between 30 and 60 percent for the Standard Bank Proteas for the home international season, for the Momentum Proteas for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup and for the ICC under-19 World Cup, which we were privileged and proud to host,” he added.
The appointment makes planning the road ahead easier: Graeme Smith
Graeme Smith was handed the initial stint when CSA was going through a turmoil period and was due to take a break during the IPL 2020. But as the tournament stands postponed he has been handed the role. Smith said he was excited to take on the reigns and it will make planning for the road ahead easier.
“My appointment brings a degree of permanency to my position which makes planning the road ahead a lot easier.
“As Dr. Faul has said, there is a lot of work that still needs to be done, not just at international level but throughout our pipeline development pathways as well but I am determined to get South African cricket back to where it belongs as one of the world leaders at international level,” he added.
Besides the appointment of Smith, the board also named, Linda Zondi as the interim independent national selector while Ashwell Prince taking charge of South Africa A and Malibongwe Maketa joining the under-19 squad as a coaching consultant.
