Cricket South Africa on Friday (April 17) appointed former Proteas captain Graeme Smith as its Director of Cricket. The 39-year-old, who retired from the sport in 2014 after a glorious run as skipper and batsman for his country, has been roped in for a two-year stint in his job lasting till March 2022.
Smith was in December brought in on an interim capacity for a three-month period where he was responsible for the appointment of new South Africa head coach Mark Boucher till the 2023 World Cup in India.
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"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 in a 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," added Faul.
"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 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."
Smith said being given the job assurance for the next two years helps with regards to the planning, as he strives to bring back the nation's glory days despite major obstacles.
"My appointment brings a degree of permanency to my position which makes planning the road ahead a lot easier," he said. "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."
