Graeme Smith’s Appointment As South Africa’s Director Of Cricket:
Over a two-year term ending on 31 March 2022, Graeme Smith was appointed South African Cricket Director.
Smith was interimly appointed during the Cricket South Africa crisis in December of last year and was expected to take a break from commentary in the IPL. It has now been confirmed regarding his position as the IPL tournament got indefinitely postponed.
In November last year, Smith first applied for the position, but withdrew his interest, citing about administration’s lack of confidence. He was reinvigorated when the CSA underwent a reform which witnessed CEO Thabang Moroe being suspended and Dr Jacques Faul was appointed as acting CEO, a status quo which still remains to be resolved till Moroe’s disciplinary hearing.
Smith also maintained a distant relationship with the board, which was harshly criticized by the South African Cricketer’s Association (SACA) and by sponsors for their role in the fall of CSA. Although a boardroom clean-out has yet to take place and some of Smith’s doubts remain, he was persuaded by his experience working with CSA staff and his growing interest in improving the game led him to commit for a long term contract.
“If I told you I had 100% certainty (over things) I would be lying to you. There have been so many doubts over the last period, it’s impossible to be certain,” Smith said during a video conference on Friday. “But, operationally I have got to know the staff, I have seen a lot of hard-working people that care deeply about the game. Over the three months, I have become invested in the position and started to care about the responsibility to the game, sorting it out, getting us back to the top of performance and the business of the game. It created that feeling for myself that I want to get stuck in and try and make a difference.”
Smith has supervised the worst home summer for South Africa since readmission, in which the national team only won one of five series under a new coaching staff, replaced Captain Faf du Plessis and expanded a wide network of selection. The declining success – South Africa did not win a Test Series in one year – posed serious concerns about the talent pool and Smith acknowledged that he was struck by the amount of work that had to be done on the ground.
“It initially shocked me how much national level coaching was needed,” he said. “It shocked me. “I believe like our players need to have access to very smart coaches and insightful people to improve their games and their ideas to the highest level. At the national level, we really seek to know who the players we need to work with, how to make them better, and how to bring them back to the top.”
“The challenge was to establish relationships with SACA and player pools that we had to improve,” said Smith. We had two-way talks, and players were much more relaxed and confident to speak to each other.”
While players obtain one level of communication reassurance, they have another level of financial reassurance. Unlike some of their international counterparts, Faul reported that both players and staff do not face an immediate pay cut threat. “We haven’t lost revenue, which would cause pay cuts,” said Faul, as the international home season was over before the pandemic struck.
