Reigniting Proteas fire
FORMER WICKETKEEPER’S NEVER-SAY-DIE ATTITUDE CAN TURN THINGS AROUND
Whatever the turmoil South African cricket has been in over the last three weeks, come Thursday morning we can be sure of one thing: The Proteas will step out on to SuperSport Park ready to fight in the first Test against England.
That is the Mark Boucher effect. South Africa’s new coach was one of the gutsiest players to wear the green cap, someone who could be relied on when the chips were down; the bigger the crisis, the better Boucher seemed to play. Which is probably why he was the ideal choice in acting director of cricket Graeme Smith’s mind to take over the reins of the Proteas.
“We have a young side, but that makes us dangerous and we are confident we can win the series. One thing I can promise is that the team will come out fighting, Mark Boucher has already instilled that,” Jacques Kallis, the new batting consultant and probably South Africa’s greatest cricketer, said yesterday as the Proteas rushed to get prepared for the first Test.
As a player, Boucher was famously pugnacious and combative, the never-say-die heartbeat of the team. At times, he would veer into the realms of abrasiveness.
His stellar career – he still holds the record for the most dismissals by a wicketkeeper in Test history, apart from scoring more than 10 000 runs in the 147 Tests and 295 ODIs he played – ended in terrible circumstances in 2012 in England when a bail flew from the wicket as Imran Tahir bowled a Somerset batsman and struck Boucher in an eye, causing permanent damage.
Instead of moping around bemoaning the rotten luck that meant he did not end a glorious career on his own terms, Boucher threw himself into conservation work, especially the protection of rhinos, before returning to cricket as the coach of the Titans in 2016, winning five trophies in his first three seasons.
The last three years have seen Boucher develop enormously as a person and he is an even more inspirational figure now than when he was as a player.
“Coaching has been really good for Mark, he’s been able to see now what it’s like on the other side. He understands both the player’s and the coach’s viewpoint, he understands the give-and-take that is required. He’s developed a lot in terms of his personality,” said Proteas captain Faf du Plessis.
It is probably difficult for Boucher to talk about himself in terms of what makes him such a tenacious person, but he does understand that his strengths seem to be at their greatest when times are toughest.
“I played a lot of cricket for South Africa and when the team has its back against the wall, I like to think it brings out the best in me. Although I didn’t go out the way I wanted, the team made me feel that there were no regrets.
“I’ve been coaching for three-anda-half years now and I’ve learnt a lot along the way. I’ve learnt that my way is not the only way. I used to be quite aggressive in trying to impose myself on team-mates, but I no longer want players to try and be like me. I have to let them be themselves, it needs to be natural. And everyone is different in terms of what comes naturally – AB de Villiers’ natural is different to Jacques Kallis’, for example,” Boucher said.
But the 43-year-old is not just all about grit and fighting and determination. Boucher knows very well that hard work and thorough preparation have to be part of the brew. He worked extremely hard as a young player to get his wicketkeeping up to international standard and one wouldn’t say he was a natural batting talent either in the same vein as Kallis or De Villiers.
“My job is to create the environment that enables the players to go out and play their best cricket. But it takes hard work and you have to get the dirty work done. Sometimes it has to be a bit uncomfortable for the players and we want to see how far we can push ourselves. You have to train smart and with the right intensity. You have to prepare properly and make sure you tick every possible box,” Boucher said.
Titans players have spoken of how just seeing Boucher in the changeroom, watching them out in the middle, has an inspirational effect, so famous are his deeds as a player and so powerful his presence and his words.
He is surely just the man for the crisis SA cricket currently finds itself in.