|| CF Correspondent ||

Former South African skipper Graeme Smith vowed to bring back golden days of South African cricket after Cricket South Africa  has appointed Graeme Smith as its Director of Cricket. The 39-year-old will initially serve a two-year term until the end of March 2022.

Smith had earlier been appointed to the role in an interim capacity for a three-month period in December 2019, giving him little over three months in his role.

Smith was delighted at the opportunity to come on board and help South Africa discover the right frequencies again.

"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 said after his appointment.

CSA acting chief executive Dr. Jacques Faul said that Smith had made a huge impact during his tenure as the director of cricket.

"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,’’ saif Faul.

"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.