Mickey Arthur was Thursday named as coach of the South African national cricket squad.

The national authority for the sport, Cricket South Africa (Pty) Ltd (CSA), said here that it had accepted the recommendation of a six-man committee to appoint Arthur until after the 2007 World Cup.

Arthur is currently coach of the provincial side Mercedes-Benz Warriors.

"Mickey is a highly qualified and successful coach with outstanding leadership and personal management skills. These assets will certainly come into play to meet the immediate challenges of the 2005/6 season," CSA chief executive officer Gerald Majola said.

"As a member of the coaching team of the SA 'A' team and at the National Academy, Mickey has worked closely with the players who are now in contention for the squad that will be representing South Africa at the next World Cup."

Arthur said it was an honour to be appointed as national coach and he was looking forward to working with all stakeholders to ensure the success of the national team.

"The season of 2005/6 is going to be exciting and challenging, leading up to the next World Cup. We have the players and support to make a formidable response to these challenges," he said.

But veteran cricketers, who had been touting for acting coach Ray Jennings to be appointed full-time, were disappointed, especially since Jennings has just led the side to a whitewash victory on the West Indian tour.

Fanie de Villiers, Clive Rice and Peter van der Merwe felt that Jennings should have been retained.

Majola announced that Jennings, who had been appointed caretaker coach until after the West Indies tour, would remain under contract to CSA (Pty) Ltd.

Jennings will join national coaching manager Anton Ferreira and high performance manager Gary Kirsten in the elite programme to prepare players who have the potential to form part of the South African squad for the World Cup.

Majola said: "We want to thank Ray for doing the job we asked him to do as a caretaker coach, and he has agreed to remain under contract for the next stage of his activities."

The names of the other applicants for the position of the South African coach, which reportedly included some overseas candidates, have not been released.

South African captain Graeme Smith expressed satisfaction with the process of selection and the appointment of Arthur as the new coach.

One of Arthur's immediate challenges will be a five-match one-day series against India that Majola said was under discussion.

There is also the New Zealand tour to South Africa in October, followed by a South Africa tour to Australia in December/January with an immediate reciprocal visit by Australia.

--Indo-Asian News Service