The former South African captain Graeme Smith has withdrawn himself from contention for the Director of Cricket position of Cricket South Africa (CSA).
CSA had invited applications for the role and Smith was one of the former cricketers who had applied. He also appeared for the interview recently and it was believed that he was the front runner for the position.
But, he released a statement on twitter yesterday saying he was not willing to take up the position anymore.
“I would have loved to have taken the role. However, despite my obvious desire to make a difference, during the long and, at times, frustrating process over the last ten weeks of discussions, I have not developed the necessary confidence that I would be given the level of freedom and support to initiate the required changes.” Smith’s statement read.
According to Smith, he has had chats with the bosses of Cricket South Africa over the job profile of Director of Cricket and after the conversation, he realized that he would probably not be allowed to work with the kind of freedom he wanted.
After South Africa’s dismal performance in the World Cup 2019, the CSA had decided that they would appoint a Director of Cricket who would be responsible for all the cricketing decisions.
South Africa didn’t make a permanent appointment straightaway and roped in Corrie Van Zyl on an interim basis for the India tour. But, now they are looking for a permanent appointment and with Smith pulling out, Van Zyl might be given the role permanently.
Van Zyl, who was a right arm fast bowler, didn’t play too much cricket for South Africa at the international level, but he was a hugely successful first class cricketer. He played more than 100 first class matches in his career and grabbed 349 wickets at an average of 23.38.
