Van Zyl and Smith to continue leading South Africa for at least another year

Corrie van Zyl will continue as South Africa's coach until April 2011, Cricket South Africa (CSA) confirmed yesterday. Van Zyl recently led the Proteas to a 1-1 draw in their Test series in India after being appointed on an interim basis following Mickey Arthur's resignation last month. The 48-year-old will remain in charge until after the Cricket World Cup, which is due to take place on the subcontinent in February and March next year.

Graeme Smith will continue to captain South Africa for the same period while Jacques Kallis, the all-rounder, was appointed as the team's vice-captain in all forms of the game. Meanwhile, Lalit Modi, the Champions League commissioner, has said no decision had yet been taken on where this year's event would take place, despite CSA last week claiming they had "accepted an invitation" to host the tournament.

CSA said on their official website that they would host the event, which features domestic Twenty20 competition winners from across the world, adding that it was "their turn" to stage the event. They have since taken the statement down and Modi said yesterday that the announcement was premature, although he refused to ruled out the possibility of them being hosts. "It is absolutely not true yet, but they are a hot contender," he said.

"I am the chairman of the Champions League and what we have done is request a few of the boards to let us know if they are ready to host the Champions League. "The Champions League has been conceived to be a travelling tournament, we have also spoken to Australia, the English cricket board and the India cricket board to affirm whether they are ready. I think what happened is the [South African] board approved that they would like to host it and South Africa definitely is in hot contention for that without doubt.

"The final decision is still to be made by the Champions League board." Modi said that the composition of the next tournament had also still to be decided upon. [e-mail]