Having been appointed as CSA Director of Cricket on an interim basis in December last year, former South Africa captain Graeme Smith has now signed up for a full-time two-year extension.
“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 Jacques Faul in his statement.
Smith confirms Quinton de Kock won’t be South Africa’s Test captain
Quinton de Kock will not be appointed as South Africa’s new Test captain even though there is no clear candidate for the position yet. Graeme Smith, South Africa’s director of cricket, on Friday, said the risk of overburdening de Kock has resulted in ruling him out of leadership role in all three formats.
De Kock was named as South Africa’s white-ball captain in January. He succeeded Faf du Plessis, who had been in charge since 2017. Du Plessis also stood down from the Test captaincy but remains available as a player.
With South Africa not scheduled to play any Tests before a tour to West Indies in July-August, they have some time to decide who will lead them in whites but are sure it will not be de Kock.
“The one thing I can confirm is that Quinton will be our white-ball captain and he won’t be the Test captain going forward,” Smith said. “We want to keep Quinton fresh and playing well. I’ve always believed, having been in the job myself, that captaining all three formats is challenging. We’ve seen a number of nations trying to figure out what’s best and I think across three formats, it probably doesn’t work.”
De Kock is also South Africa’s premier wicket-keeper and had stated his desire to keep the gloves, and that he opens the batting in white-ball cricket, adding the Test captaincy to his load was decided as being too much.
“From a workload and mental capacity, we felt that to burden him with all three formats wouldn’t be beneficial for us. And with the style of personality and player that he is, we want to keep him as expressive as possible,” Smith added.
Smith had captained South Africa in record 108 Tests between 2003 and 2014. He played in a total of 117 Tests, 197 ODIs and 33 T20s.
