Ken Borland

When one leaves the job of national cricket coach “to pursue other opportunities in line with his future career and personal objectives”, then the IPL would be a most suitable next step and Proteas coach Mark Boucher was duly confirmed as the Mumbai Indians new head coach on Friday.

Boucher announced earlier this week that he would step down as the Proteas coach after the T20 World Cup next month in Australia, and the “pursue other opportunities” reason was attributed to Cricket South Africa CEO Pholetsi Moseki in their statement.

“It’s a pleasure to welcome Mark Boucher to Mumbai Indians. With his proven expertise on the field and off it as a coach, guiding his team to numerous victories, Mark will add immense value to MI and take forward its legacy,” Akash M. Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm, the owners of the franchise, said.

Boucher has overseen a steady growth in the Proteas T20 team, such that they are now ranked third in the world and are considered dark horses for the World Cup crown in Australia.

For Boucher, taking the coaching reins at a franchise as powerful as Mumbai Indians, the most successful IPL team in history with five titles since 2013, can almost be considered a step-up, especially in terms of salary.

But the last couple of years have been rough for Mumbai and there will be pressure for Boucher to turn around their fortunes as quickly as possible, because they missed the playoffs in 2021 and finished last this year.

“It is an honour and privilege for me to be appointed as head coach of Mumbai Indians,” Boucher said. “Their history and achievements as a franchise clearly put them up there as one of the most successful franchises in all of world sport.

“I look forward to the challenge and respect the need for results. It’s a strong unit with great leadership and players, and I look forward to adding value to this dynamic unit.”

Reports had suggested Boucher was being lined up for the MI Cape Town coaching gig in the inaugural SA20 early next year, but Australian Simon Katich has been appointed to head that sub-franchise, with Hashim Amla as the batting coach.

Boucher replaces Mahela Jayawardena as IPL coach, with the Sri Lankan great now looking after all three sub-franchises in the IPL, SA20 and Emirates T20 for Reliance as global head of performance.

Trawling social media (which always leaves one feeling a bit dirty), one would think Cricket South Africa’s newly-appointed director of cricket, Enoch Nkwe, is filled with the sort of vengeful wrath of a spouse whose partner has committed adultery.

South Africans, it seems, love the drama of confrontation and aggression, especially if we can throw in an element of racial bias. No wonder we are such a sadly divided nation.

Aside from the delicious irony of Nkwe having gone from being Mark Boucher’s assistant coach to effectively his boss in the space of less than a year, it is highly unlikely that the new director of cricket is going to come in and destabilise the national team – especially since they are clearly heading in the right direction – by firing the coach.

And with CSA now playing it by the book in terms of corporate governance, any perceived enmity between the two has not only been grossly overstated but would also not be grounds for dismissing Boucher.

While admittedly it was a difficult marriage between the two when Boucher became head coach in December 2019, Nkwe being ‘demoted’ from interim team director to his assistant, the new director of cricket told me personally a couple of months back that he had no issues with Boucher personally.

His much-publicised resignation and his eventual decision not to testify at Boucher’s disciplinary hearing were never about the man himself. The reason why their work relationship never clicked is because, at heart, they are both head coaches.

South Africa have often got it wrong when it comes to their assistant coaches for the national team. Being the Proteas assistant coach is not like being the head coach of a franchise, the responsibilities are totally different. It is why someone like Malibongwe Maketa is much better off being the head coach of the SA A team than he would be in some understudy role with the Proteas.

It is a systemic error and Nkwe is exactly the sort of clear thinker to put it right as director of cricket.

At CSA’s AGM last October, the grim financial picture of the organisation was shown, with a nett loss of R221 million in 2020/21. This was largely due to broadcast revenue plummeting and there was an acknowledgement that to fix the situation, the Proteas had to be a drawcard, strong enough for the Big Three to want to play against regularly.

Between Boucher and the previous director of cricket, Graeme Smith, that vital reputation overseas has been restored. The immense respect Smith is held in internationally, especially in India, was crucial in getting those ‘sugar daddies’ into bed.

Nkwe will be a different sort of director of cricket. Apart from being an excellent coach, the 39-year-old is passionate about developing structures for the game, from grassroots all the way to where the sponsors want to pay their big money.

Nkwe’s appointment is an investment in the game at all levels and just reward for someone who has maintained his dignity despite the ignominy of his treatment by the previous CSA Board.

But then Boucher has also been treated disgracefully and I like to believe that there will a professional relationship between the two and a respect for their different roles.

Boucher may well continue to be the public face of our cricket as he steers the national team, but Nkwe has a vital role to play in ensuring the pipeline, everything that feeds into the Proteas, is operating smoothly and efficiently.

Together, they could actually form quite a formidable team. Nkwe is one of the leading cricket brains in the country and his input into the national team and all levels below it can only be beneficial.

Springbok centre Lukhanyo Am is not only the Sharks’ captain but he has been the provider of numerous moments of beautiful magic on the field, so wing Sbu Nkosi acknowledges the team are certainly going to miss him against Scarlets in Durban on Friday night, but they have confidence the large hole he leaves will be adequately filled.

Am has left for Japan for a lucrative two-month stint with Kobe Steelers, meaning he will miss the Sharks’ next seven United Rugby Championship matches, returning in time for the last game of the round-robin phase, away to Ulster on May 21.

“It would be very difficult for any team in the world to lose Lukhanyo,” Nkosi said on Tuesday. “But we have very capable replacements and they are learning quickly.

“But it’s a huge loss for any team, Lukhanyo has exceptional quality and the ability to produce some great moments on the field when they are really needed.

“We will take time to adjust, but if each player brings 10% extra then that will more than make up for Lukhanyo’s loss.

“In terms of the captaincy, Siya Kolisi has played a leadership role since he arrived, he’s been very influential and involved. He’ll bring the same energy now, he’s just got the authority of the captain’s title now,” Nkosi said.

The Scarlets have travelled from the rain and temperatures of less than 10° of Llanelli to Durban perhaps expecting the weather to be a bit milder on the coast than it is currently in a place like Limpopo. But the temperature will be pushing 30° in Durban this week with humidity of 85%.

“It’s not gonna happen!” Nkosi laughed when asked about the potential for cooler weather now that summer has entered its last month. “It’s still very hot and humid and the ball is very slippery.

“That’s just how it is and I expect that on Friday night as well. We’ve been training in that, we are moulded in heat and our coaches have us training when the sun is at its highest.

“We want to use the humidity and heat to our advantage. Scarlets are flying from the cold to extremely hot weather.

“But it does not matter where they are placed on the log [12^th], that does not always reflect the quality of a side. We ourselves were in a totally different place on the log three weeks ago, so we will approach them with respect,” Nkosi said.

Bulls coach Jake White praised his team for their determination to not just lie down and die after Morne Steyn’s red card against the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld, even though he admitted their lack of finishing and ultimate defeat leaves them in a very difficult position in the United Rugby Championship.

The Bulls had to play for 70 minutes without their talismanic flyhalf after he was permanently sent off for a late, high tackle that struck the neck of Lukhanyo Am. But a tremendous effort and some superb rugby saw them come back from 26-12 down, eventually losing 22-29 with several scoring chances left on the table.

“I’m really proud of the way the team fought back,” White said, “because some teams just lay down and die after a red card. Your flyhalf runs everything, and Morne is the best kicker in the competition and we missed three conversions. Kick those and we would have won.

“It’s never nice to lose, we don’t feel good, but there’s a lot to be positive about. You lose your flyhalf for 70 minutes and still score four tries against probably the best team on paper in South Africa.

“It was not the result we wanted, but you can’t question the players’ commitment. We just needed to be more clinical in their 22, we managed to pin them there for long periods of time.

“We had enough opportunities in the 22, but things went wrong with our maul and some of our ball-carries. But I’m very confident with where we are going with this team,” White said.

The former Springbok coach expressed his surprise that the Bulls did not see more reward from referee AJ Jacobs either for their rolling maul or their concerted pressure on the Sharks’ tryline.

“We ran 40 metres with our maul and got no reward, which I can’t understand,” White said. “We also had a half-a-dozen penalties on their tryline.

“Our forward pack did not take a step backwards and we showed that we can dominate against a team that is like the Springboks side.

“I thought Robert Hunt and Jacques van Rooyen did well today against the incumbent Springbok front row and we are much better off in terms of scrummaging than we were seven weeks ago.

“But this loss puts us in a very difficult position. Our backs are against the wall for the first time for this group. But good teams find a way of making the playoffs and our challenge now is to find the low road,” White said.