Former South Africa skipper Graeme Smith is all set to become Cricket South Africa's (CSA) director of cricket, according to the board's President Chris Nenzani.
Nenzani said that he had spoken to Smith about his appointment on Saturday morning.
"I am happy to announce that we have engaged Graeme Smith and I am confirming that by next week Wednesday all of the negotiations around the contract terms that need to take place would have been concluded," said Nenzani, speaking after a special board meeting of CSA.
If Smith, who is likely to accept the new role, will have just around a couple of weeks to put a selection panel and coaching staff in place before the first of four-Test series against England gets underway in Centurion on December 26.
On the other hand, the CSA crisis is still the same as with Nenzani with his remaining board members refused to resign from their post as Tony Irish, Chief Executive of the SA Cricketers Association (SACA), who had asked the CSA President to step down on Friday.
Irish said in a tweet: "Appalled that the President and board of CSA have taken no responsibility for cricket's biggest crisis. Now clinging to power."
The board meanwhile, appointed administrator Jacques Faul as acting chief executive on Saturday after a chaotic week in which they suspended CEO Thabang Moroe over governance concerns, had three board members resign and lost key sponsor Standard Bank, who will not renew their contract when it ends in April 2020.
Nenzani confirmed that former International Cricket Council CEO Dave Richardson had been the first choice for the position, but the latter said he would rather play a supporting role given other commitments.
"Richardson's role will be to offer support and be available when required to put his services at the disposal of CSA. That ticks the box in terms of having stability at management level," Nenzani added.
