New South African cricket boss Smith rules De Kock out of Test captaincy

Former Test skipper Graeme Smith was on Friday confirmed as South Africa's director of cricket -- and revealed that Quinton de Kock would not be elevated to the Test captaincy.

Jacques Faul, acting chief executive of Cricket South Africa, said Smith had been appointed for a two-year term, expiring at the end of March 2022. Smith was appointed in an acting capacity last December.

Smith, 39, captained South Africa in a world record 108 Test matches and in 149 one-day internationals. He also captained a World XI in a one-off Test against Australia in 2005/06.

He told a tele-conference that the debate over the Test captaincy was one of the challenges he faced during a period when no cricket can be played because of the coronavirus pandemic.

"It's not going to be Quinton," he said, citing De Kock's responsibility as the country's limited-overs captain as well as being wicketkeeper and a key batsman.

"Quinton will be our white-ball captain but from a workload and mental capacity aspect we want to keep him fresh. From personal experience I know that captaining all three formats is challenging and we don't want to overburden him."
"There's no one person you can pinpoint," he said. "There are a lot of players on a similar level."
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