Cricket South Africa (CSA) appointment Graeme Smith as the permanent Director of Cricket for the two-year term until April 2020. He was currently serving as a temporary Director of Cricket from last December.
Smith said he was delighted to stay on board as part of the team to take South African cricket forward. Graeme Smith said, “My appointment brings a degree of permanency to my position which makes planning the road ahead a lot easier.”
“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 the international level,” he concluded.
Talking about his appointment Cricket South Africa Acting Executive Dr Jacques Faul said, “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.”
“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 added.
Smith captained South Africa in a record 108 Tests between 2003 and 2014. He played in a total of 117 Tests, 197 ODIs and 33 T20s.
“He has bought into all the overall pillars of our strategy and that includes the important one of transformation,” he said.
“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,” explained Dr Faul.
He also made a number of strategic temporary appointments with Linda Zondi appointed interim independent national selector, Ashwell Prince taking charge of South Africa A and Malibongwe Maketa joining the under-19 squad as a coaching consultant.
