Cricket South Africa (CSA) today announced the appointment of Graeme Smith as its Director of Cricket. The ex-South African captain, Smith was given the job in an acting capacity in December 2019, but has now signed an initial two-year deal until the end of April 2022.
In a long and distinguished cricketing career 39-year-old Smith played 117 test matches for South Africa scoring over 9,265 runs including 27 centuries and a top score of 277. He also played in England for Somerset and Surrey as well as appearing in the inaugural 2008 Indian Premier League for Rajasthan Royals alongside Shane Warne. He retired from playing in 2014 and has since had spells commentating in South Africa and in the Pakistan Super League.
“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,” commented 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 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.”
Smith said he was delighted to stay on board as part of the team to take South African cricket forward. “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 concluded.
John Stephenson
john@cricketinvestor.co.uk
