Former Proteas captain Graeme Smith will be unveiled as the new director of cricket (DOC) at Cricket South Africa (CSA) by Wednesday next week.
That is the view of CSA president Chris Nenzani, who addressed members of the media in Johannesburg on Saturday following a disastrous week for the organisation.
Having announced that Jacques Faul would step in as acting CEO for the suspended Thabang Moroe, Nenzani then moved onto the issue of the DOC role with a bumper summer against England on home soil now less than three weeks from getting underway with the Boxing Day Test at centurion.
Smith had previously expressed interest in the DOC role, but had removed himself from the running just six days later claiming that he did not have the confidence that there would be no interference in his role from the CSA administration.
Nenzani said he had spoken to Smith on Saturday morning, and if all goes according to plan the appointment will be made official next week.
"Time is of the essence and we need to move as fast as we can," said Nenzani.
"I'm happy to announce that we have engaged Graeme Smith and I am confirming that he has agreed that by next week Wednesday all of the negotiations around the contract terms that need to take place would have been concluded.
"We still have these three days left for engagement on the specific issues around the contract.
"Him and CSA have both agreed that it is important that we conclude this by Tuesday so that on Wednesday we are able to announce to the public a certainty of how we go forward.
"If you have your DOC in place, then your selection process is going to kick in and your team preparation is going to kick in."
Nenzani added that, according to his knowledge, Smith had expressed a lack of confidence in the now suspended Moroe.
England will play four Tests, three ODIs and three T20Is in South Africa.
