Ken Borland

Seeing how a couple of personnel options go and getting the players into peak form ahead of the T20 World Cup are the focus points for Proteas coach Mark Boucher as he leads the team to India for a T20 and ODI series that starts next Wednesday and ends on October 11.

It will be Boucher’s penultimate mission with the national team, after he decided to end his stint with the Proteas after the T20 World Cup that follows the India tour. Boucher will be becoming the Mumbai Indians head coach, but he did not want to talk about that, rather disingenuously saying contractual obligations to both CSA and his new IPL franchise prevented him from speaking about his move.

“It’s a massive tour for us, the tour before the big event, which is the World Cup. It will be very easy to keep the focus on that massive prize and I know the players are very focused too,” Boucher said.

“My personal decisions won’t hamper the players, I’m in this job for them and I will give 100% to them. I want to look at combinations, keep them in touch in terms of form and try get the confidence going.

“We hope to see a couple of options and give opportunities to players, albeit in Indian conditions. We know we will have to play a different brand in Australia, but I know we’ve got the players to push for a great outcome.

“We also don’t want to give away too many of our cards because India are in our World Cup pool as well. So don’t expect us to go at them with our full-frontal team,” Boucher said.

While the 45-year-old often comes across as a stern older brother type rather than a kind, gentle uncle, there is no doubt he backs his players. Whether that be “backing Temba Bavuma 100%” after his shock omission from the SA20 or pumping the tyres of a T20 squad that many see as dark horses for the World Cup title.

“We’ve been the most successful T20 side over the last 25-30 games and we have a lot of special players. I have full confidence that we have lots of ammunition, now it’s about getting the guys to go out and play and be world-beaters.

“We’ll try and get everyone involved and ready in India, there are three T20s and three ODIs to get the guys in form and fit. It’s a massive blow not having Rassie van der Dussen and his whole aura around the team.

“But we are fortunate to have lots of guys pushing for selection, the competition for places is massive. And we can compete in any conditions.

“The nice thing about being together for a long time is that we have continuity, but also some exciting new talent that doesn’t have the scars of the past,” Boucher said.

Mark Boucher is never going to be soft and cute and adorable like a llama, it’s just not his personality and he probably would not have been a great cricketer if he had been. As a coach, the players I have spoken to appreciate his straight-talking approach, but also say he is amazing at encouraging and growing cricketers.

Those coaching qualities have now been recognised on arguably the greatest international stage of all as he was announced on Friday as the Mumbai Indians’ new IPL head coach. Mumbai is not just India’s largest, richest city, it is also home to the IPL’s most successful franchise, having lifted the cup a record five times since 2013.

Boucher may yet turn out to be the prophet not recognised in his home town, but any unbiased examination of his three-year term in charge of the Proteas would acknowledge the tremendous strides the team has made since the utter shambles of 2019.

Yet it seems the most prolific wicketkeeper in the history of the international game still cannot win when it comes to certain segments of South African cricket.

His announcement that he would be moving on from the Proteas job after the T20 World Cup in Australia next month was greeted in some quarters by criticism that, having fought tooth and nail to stay in the job, he was now giving it up a year before his contract expires.

This is most unfair, but par for the course when it comes to criticising Boucher, who for some reason attracts a lot of illogical hatred.

The reason Boucher fought so hard to stay Proteas coach was not so much for the job, but because he was rightfully spitting mad that he was about to be fired for scurrilous allegations of racism. There can surely be no greater stain on a White South African’s name than being called racist?

So Boucher was pilloried for trying to clear his name – justice did prevail in that regard – and now gets accused of leaving the Proteas in the lurch.

Boucher knows that unless he wins a World Cup between now and the end of next year, he was never going to have his contract renewed. While there are much nicer people in charge at Cricket South Africa these days, there is still a significant lobby from the old guard that continues to infect the structures. There are still loud anti-Boucher voices, as we have seen his week.

So when the option to become a head coach in the most lucrative cricket league comes around, who in their right mind would not take it? Mumbai Indians have been through a lean spell over the last couple of years, so Boucher will be under pressure to get results. But it will strictly be pressure based on what happens on the field, and not the sort of political sideshows he had to deal with in South Africa.

That will be for his successor at the Proteas to now handle and there are good candidates waiting in the aisles.

There had been speculation that Boucher would land up in Cape Town as the head coach of the new Mumbai Indians franchise that is playing in the SA20. Given the amount of ill-feeling towards him that festers in that city, that would have been an intriguing turn of events.

It was interesting to hear Joburg Super Kings coach Eric Simons say this week that T20 has become the most tactical format of the game, the one that requires the most thinking. That flies in the face of some perceptions that it is just a bunch of gym bunnies trying to smash the ball out of the ground all the time.

Likewise, Boucher is perhaps misperceived as this hard-nosed coach who shouts at the players and believes in his way or the highway. In fact, the best work Boucher has done with the Proteas has probably been around freeing up their mindsets, encouraging them to think out of the box and pursue new strategies.

He seems a great fit for the IPL and I will be watching his progress with great interest.

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.

Proteas coach Mark Boucher admitted that their batting had been insipid in the Test series in England, but said the natural remedy of just finding other batsmen to take the incumbents’ places in the Big Time was not applicable because the batters on tour were the best available.

“The batsmen here have consistently been the best in the country,” Boucher said after the series loss but before the shock announcement that he would be standing down from his post after the T20 World Cup next month. “We always knew we would be under pressure if the conditions made the ball go around a bit against a good English bowling attack.

“You have to be able to trust your defence, but our issue was that we weren’t able to keep out the good balls. Quite a few technical flaws were exposed.

“But it’s a fine line between wanting the batsmen to play the way that got them here and changing too much. And this is not an academy of learning, this is Test cricket.

“We were forced into positions where we had to give opportunities to others, you can’t just keep playing with the same guys who keep failing. There’s a mental side to it too, and it can become like quicksand – the harder you try, the deeper you sink.

“Hopefully these batsmen will get it right next time they come here. We played some very good cricket, but we just couldn’t put the runs on the board,” Boucher said at The Oval.

Although Boucher is now likely to become a franchise T20 coach, he made a plea to cricket’s global administrators for more Tests per annum to be played.

“The only way to get experience is by going out and playing, and losing sight of Test cricket would not be great. I’m a purist, I love it and for me it is the truest form of the game. We need to take care of it.

“The heads of the game need to get together and decide how best we can play more Test cricket, we need to find a way.

“Test cricket is exciting, you very seldom see draws anymore, it’s attacking and nice to watch. The more we see of it the better,” Boucher said.