Eric Simons has officially resigned his position as coach of the South African cricket team.
Cricket South Africa (CSA) and the United Cricket Board (UCB) have reached mutually acceptable agreements with Simons and manager Tim Southey upon which their contracts will be terminated with immediate effect.
A replacement coach is expected to be named later on Friday.
At this stage no statement has been received on the fate of chairperson of selectors Omar Henry. There is wide speculation that his position also hangs in the balance.
Simons, who became coach in September 2002, has been under increasing pressure in recent months to produce positive results with the national team.
Unfortunately those results were not forthcoming which led to a review of the national squad and its management structures by UCB chief executive Gerald Majola.
Simons and Southey were part of the review process, and, after further discussions with Majola it was decided, that in the best interest of both parties and South African cricket, their contracts would be terminated.
Both men have accepted the terms of the settlement packages proposed by CSA and the UCB. Those terms are confidential.
”Obviously I am immensely disappointed that we were not able to achieve better results,” Simons said.
”These have been very tough times for the national team and I acknowledge that we performed below expectation on the tours of New Zealand and Sri Lanka. I accept that in times like this tough decisions have to be made.
”Despite the run of poor results I believe in the systems and processes we implemented over the last 18 months, and it was frustrating that they did not produce the desired results sooner.
”Like all cricket loving South Africans I have been very disappointed at the way things have gone on the field. I wish the squad all the best in the coming series.”
South Africa tour India in November and host England in December. – Sapa