Cricket South Africa acting chief executive officer Jacques Faul has hailed former Proteas captain Graeme Smith’s appointment, in principle, as director of cricket as ‘some form of progress’.

Faul will be the interim role for a maximum of six months, after permanent CEO Thabang Moroe was placed on precautionary suspension earlier this week.

Smith, meanwhile, has agreed in principle to fill the new director of cricket position. He had interviewed for the post, later withdrew interest, but then revealed ongoing discussions with CSA. On Saturday, the appointment was all but made permanent.

‘If he comes in now, at least there is some form of progress. That’s what we need. We need a competitive Proteas team on the field – its very, very important. We’ve got to get there,’ said Faul.

Faul was CSA’s acting CEO in 2012, too. He filled the role in an interim capacity after then-CEO Gerald Majola’s dismissal. CSA’s reputation was in jeopardy at the time due to Majola’s involvement in 2009’s Indian Premier League bonus scandal.

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‘The challenges now are a little bit different. Then, we had judge Chris Nicholson, which was a clear pathway in what to do. In this case, there seems to be a lot of relationship problems that we need to sort out. It’s difficult to say which one is worse, they are different,’ added Faul.

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