South Africa Coach Mark Boucher Tastes Winning Start

Mark Boucher was one of the best wicketkeepers in the world in his playing days with 999 dismissals across all forms of cricket. But his cricketing career ended in a shocking manner. In Taunton in 2012, he got hit by a ball in the left eye during a warm-up match against English county side Somerset and after which, he lost his lens, iris and pupil. This accident brought an unexpected end to his career.

Former South Africa cricketer Mark Boucher who took over as South Africa coach said that winning his first test match against England on Sunday was indeed a good start. South Africa got the better of England by 107 runs at SuperSport Park Cricket Stadium in Centurion Park and took the first lead in the four-match Test series.

Mark Boucher also recalled good memories when he played and won some Test matches here. He also said that the boys put in loads of effort in the training session and eventually, it bore fruit. “I’ve played quite a few test matches and we won a couple of good ones but certainly this is up there, especially from where we have come,” he said.

“It has been a hectic two weeks, we’ve put in a lot of hard work as a coaching staff, so this is a reward. I’m also very happy for the players and the way they approached it. We said before we wanted to instil some confidence back in the players and to see them walk off the field with a win you can see now there is a belief that we can win test matches against very good teams,” Boucher added.

It is an honour for me to walk back into that changing room: Mark Boucher

Mark Boucher also added that it is indeed a great honour for him to walk back into the dressing room and wants to bring a change in South African cricket. “I’ve been out of international cricket for quite some time now so it’s an honour for me to walk back into that changing room and be part of hopefully a change in South African cricket,” he said.

“There’s been quite a few changes but the spirit and passion is still there. I’m looking forward to the challenge and working hard with the guys and seeing them develop,” Boucher added in a statement.

Mark Boucher took charge of domestic Titans franchise in the year 2016 and after instilling confidence in the players, he was named Coach of the Year within a year. The former Proteas wicket-keeper batsman now has a contract with South Africa until the year 2023.

Though there is still a long way to go, Mark Boucher is pretty much confident that his team players who are in the learning curve will soon turn out to be experienced cricketers. “We understand there is a long way to go,” he said. “We’ve got a couple of youngsters we need to impart knowledge to and speed up the process of becoming experienced cricketers and we’ll certainly do that.”

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