Boucher named South Africa head coach as England series looms

Cape Town, December 14

Former wicketkeeper Mark Boucher has been appointed South Africa’s head coach ahead of the four-Test home series against England that starts on December 26. Boucher, who has been given a contract until 2023, was unveiled by new Cricket South Africa (CSA) director of cricket Graeme Smith, with Enoch Nkwe to act as assistant coach and former Test opener Ashwell Prince to lead the South African A side.

“I felt at this stage that the Proteas need a hardened guy with international experience, one who is very knowledgeable and tactically very sound, and we also know what qualities he has as a man,” Smith said.

Boucher spent close on a decade with Smith in the South African Test side, and the pair is known to be close. They will now seek to engineer an upswing in fortunes for the Test side that has lost five matches in a row, against Sri Lanka and India. Boucher will scramble to put together a plan to counter England in his next assignment starting on Boxing Day.

“Our confidence is a bit down, we need to get that back,” Boucher said. “There is a wealth of knowledge in this country,” he added.

Boucher took over the domestic Titans franchise in 2016 and within a year was named Coach of the Year at the annual CSA awards. — Reuters