Andrew Hudson appointed convenor of selectors

Andrew Hudson, the former South Africa batsman, has been appointed Cricket South Africa's convenor of selectors. The entire selection panel had been disbanded following the resignation of coach Mickey Arthur in January, and the board CEO Gerald Majola had held the post of convenor in the interim.

The interim selection committee, which replaced the one led by Mike Procter, comprised Majola, Corrie van Zyl, who is South Africa's coach, and former captain Kepler Wessels, who is also the team's batting consultant. van Zyl and Wessels retain their places in the panel, while Shafiek Abrahams, the former South Africa offspinner, joins them as national high performance manager.

"Shafiek is ideally qualified as he is a member of the national high performance coaching staff," Majola said. "He is also the SA U19 national convenor of selectors, which allows him a full view of the emerging talent from CSA's pipeline, and is a former national selector.

"The national selection panel will comprise from 1 June 2010: Andrew Hudson (convenor); Corrie van Zyl (representing the national coach's post); and Shafiek Abrahams (representing the high performance manager's post); with Graeme Smith (representing the captain's post) as a selector for the final XI."

Hudson, an opening batsman, represented South Africa in 35 Tests and 89 ODIs, averaging 33.45 and 29.41 respectively in each format. "I am looking forward to getting involved with the Proteas again," Hudson said. "They have done well recently and I am confident that we also have the emerging talent to take our team forward.

The sacked panel led by Procter took over as selectors in December 2008, just before the historic series victory in Australia which put South Africa on top of both the Test and the ODI rankings. Results went downhill after that, with South Africa losing the return Test series against Australia and only managing to draw the home series against England in in January this year. Between those two assignments were the loss in the World Twenty20 semi-finals and the embarrassingly early exit in the ICC Champions Trophy they hosted. The panel's tenure was supposed to be till the 2011 World Cup, the same as Arthur's.

Majola also announced that the position of coach will be advertised soon with van Zyl remaining as interim coach until after the ICC World Cup 2011. The composition of the selection panel, Majola said, would be subject to an annual review.