Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Smith Set to Quit T20 Captaincy



Graeme Smith has called a press conference for Wednesday morning to outline his future, with Reuters suggesting he will stand down as South Africa's Twenty20 captain.

South Africa were eliminated in the Super Eights stage of this year's World Twenty20 in the Caribbean and the next tournament is not until 2012 in Sri Lanka, which would give South Africa time to rebuild under a new captain.

Smith, who will announce his plans at 11am (0900GMT), has captained his country in all formats since 2003, when he was just 22. He has developed into a strong leader and led the Test side to No. 1 in the world rankings during a run that culminated in a maiden series victory in Australia. He has spoken in the past about the demands of leading the team in all formats and that Test cricket and a World Cup title remain his top ambitions.

There are a few options to replace Smith as Twenty20 captain but the queue is probably headed by Johan Botha, who has captained the side in Smith's absence, or AB de Villiers.

South African cricket underwent major changes earlier this year when Mickey Arthur resigned as coach following the 1-1 series draw with England, and Mike Procter was fired as convenor of selectors along with the entire committee.

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