Cricket South Africa interim director of cricket Graeme Smith’s position has been made permanent.

Smith agreed to the role in an acting capacity late last year. He has since signed a contract to continue as full-time director of cricket for two years.

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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,’ said CSA acting chief executive officer, doctor 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 Proteas for the home international season, for the Proteas for the Women’s T20 World Cup and for the 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 played 117 Tests, 197 ODIs and 33 T20Is between 2002 and 2014. He is the most successful Test captain in the history of South African cricket.

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