Johannesburg, Jun 30 (IANS): Cricket South Africa (CSA) on Thursday appointed Enoch Nkwe as their Director of Cricket.

The 39-year-old Nkwe will replace Graeme Smith, whose three-year term came to an abrupt end in March earlier this year following racism allegations which he was later cleared of.

Enoch played professional cricket for the Highveld Lions before he was forced to an early retirement due to his career-ending injury. He played 42 First Class, 38 List A and 9 T20s. In 2016, Nkwe joined the Netherlands team as the assistant coach.

In 2018, he took over as head coach of Highveld Lions winning both the CSA T20 Challenge and the first-class competition in his first season in charge.

A Level IV coach, Nkwe also led Jozi Stars to the inaugural Mzansi Super League title in 2018 as head coach and later in the year was the assistant coach of Vancouver Knights in the Global T20 Canada where the team finished runners-up.

Nkwe had previously been named the interim Team Director in 2019 before Smith took charge, relegating him to the assistant head coach role of the national side.

Besides Nkwe, CSA have also announced three more appointments to the board who will form a part of the organisation's executive team.

Mtunzi Jonas takes over as the Chief Commercial Officer, Tjaart van der Walt has been appointed as the Chief Financial Officer while Wanele Mngomezulu comes on board as the Chief Marketing Officer.

According to the CSA statement, the Director of Cricket will assume duty on July 1, 2022, while the other three Executives will join on August 1.