Owen-Smith appointed South Africa's media manager

Michael Owen-Smith, the South African journalist, has been appointed Cricket South Africa's media officer on a three-year contract, replacing Gordon Templeton on September 1.

Owen-Smith comes from a strong cricketing background, having spent 30 years as a newspaper journalist; been part of the judging panel for the annual Wisden Cricketer of the Year and is the son of Tuppy Owen-Smith, the former South Africa allrounder.

"Michael Owen-Smith is regarded as one of the most knowledgeable and experienced cricket correspondents both here and abroad. He will be a major asset to both CSA and the Proteas," Gerald Majola, CSA's chief executive said. "Apart from his writing abilities, Michael comes from an outstanding sports background as his late father was the famous Tuppy Owen-Smith, who played cricket for South Africa and rugby for England.

"Michael has also been a talent-spotter of note, and many young cricketers he wrote about later became top players. His CSA assignment will include liaising with the media on Proteas' matters, as well as preparing senior and junior representative players to deal with public issues."

The new appointment is one of a raft of changes for South Africa's board, following the selection of Joubert Strydom as convenor of selectors.

"After 37 years of being directly involved in the newspaper industry, I feel the need for change," Owen-Smith said. "I am delighted to join the team of Cricket South Africa as I feel the game in this country is entering its most exciting period since unity in 1991.

"This was born out by the fully representative squad that represented South Africa at the recent Emerging Players tournament in Australia which we won. Although one of my main focuses will be to communicate with the local and international media, I will also have the opportunity to carry on writing which I will do through the medium of CSA's website

"Understandably the mainframe media tend to concentrate on the Proteas, but there is much else to CSA including the High Performance Centre, the academies, the national youth teams, the franchises and domestic cricket generally."