Graeme Smith has been appointed South Africa's director of cricket for a two-year period ending on March 31, 2022.

Smith was appointed in an interim capacity in mid-December, during a time of crisis at Cricket South Africa, and was due to take a break to commentate on the IPL. With that tournament now postponed, he has been confirmed in the role.

"My appointment brings a degree of permanency to my position which makes planning the road ahead a lot easier," Smith said in a CSA press release. "There is a lot of work that still needs to be done, not just at international level but throughout our pipeline development pathways as well but I am determined to get South African cricket back to where it belongs as one of the world leaders at international level."

CSA's acting chief executive Dr Jacques Faul was also impressed with the former captain's efforts so far, saying Smith "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," Faul said. "As far as the technical and support teams he has put together are concerned, the black generic component amounted to more than 70% across the board and the black African component varied between 30 and 60% for the home international season, for the Women's T20 World Cup and for the under-19 World Cup, which we were privileged and proud to host."

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