JOHANNESBURG Graeme Smith has been appointed as Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) director of cricket on a permanent basis. The former Proteas captain was given the role for three months back in December. It had been expected CSA would look to extend his time in the job and he has now been handed an initial two-year contract. “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,” said CSA acting chief executive Dr. Jacques Faul. “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 per cent across the board and the Black African component varied between 30 and 60 per cent 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 added: “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.” Smith scored 9,265 Test runs and 6,989 in ODI cricket in a decorated career as an opening batsman for his country. South Africa’s youngest skipper, he is the most successful captain in Test history, having led the Proteas to 53 wins in the longest format. However, they are winless in their last three series, with home defeats to Sri Lanka and England sandwiched by a whitewash in India. They also failed to progress beyond the group stage of last year’s World Cup.—AP
