Smith has been appointed on acting capacity up to the start of the IPL at the end of March 2020. Whether he will be retained is another question because SA Cricket is in turmoil and Graeme is getting paid royally as a commentator in the IPL
However, he wants to appoint Boucher as Protea coach, Mozart will inevitably think it is another team run by a committee, so his advice to Graeme will be particularly welcome.
Will it last -will he produce anything with that dire situation he is in.
I applaud Smithie's appointment, scroll down to an earlier post where I suggested CSA being managed by people who know and understand the game. The problem as I see it is that he is limited in what he can do being hamstrung by the destructive quota system. As useless as they are it's not enough to get rid of the current board, sure get rid of them but the problem is with the parliamentary sports committee who really only care about quota numbers. They have no other interest.
It's a mighty relief to see major sponsors standing up to CSA and getting the message across that it's game over if they don't deliver. The madness has been carrying on for far too long.
ps I hope Mark Boucher is appointed as head coach.
Bouch will take no shit whatsoever...… from players or politicians....
Bouch is very old school in that way..... like his old man Verdon....
Quiet..... unassuming, until he needs or wants something done...…. a grafter of note
I hope he gets the position as head coach
The problem is with the selection policy and the fact that all the players are playing at 50% of capacity,
There needs to be total clean-up of the team starting from the batting line-up. I would start with Janneman Malan as opener and look carefully at Elgar - he is at the stage where he makes one good score and then 7 poor ones, Would retain him for one more series and then replace him if he fouls up again.
Du Plessis needs to be captain - but he is more or less in the same boat as Elgar and that is a bad sign as well. If he keeps failing then it is the end for him as well.
The next guy to be considered is Verreyne - though he is still very young.
De Kock is still the best in the lower batting order. However, he is seemingly disinterested and some work on his approach is necessary,
I would also look at the following potential batsmen:-
Markram, Breetzke, Van Tonder, Bavuma and Smuts. Markram failed badly on the Indian pitches was better on SA pitches and is another player with application problems. Together with Verreyne, Breetzke and Van Tonder are the most promising youngsters coming through,
"The problem is with the selection policy....."
Not really, the problem is far deeper as we've seen over the last few weeks. Fix the head and the rest will follow. If it weren't for the actions of the sponsors the clowns who are running CSA would have caused prolonged damage to our cricket. With Smithie and Bouch calling the shots selections will be a mere formality.
See what I wrote the heading of which include Mozart's name. The mess is the result of what you wrote - as well as the normal way of running state enterprises and any other institution open to looting
Graeme Smith will find that he let himself into a mess, He has no power and would not be able to correct anything. He and the Head Coach will get a team and will not be able to say a thing about selections,
If things go wrong he will get the blame for it and the team they will get will not beat any English club team.