It was with sadness that Mark Boucher announced his retirement on Tuesday following a freak accident where a bail lacerated his eye-ball after a batsman was bowled by Imran Tahir. It’s a serious injury and it goes without saying that anyone who watches cricket will wish him the best in his recovery.
Boucher is for many cricket fans in South African the only Proteas wicketkeeper they have ever known. I started watching cricket in 1995 when England toured SA for five Tests, when Dave Richardson was still the man behind the stumps. After Richardson’s retirement, Boucher became the go-to-guy from 1997 onwards, and apart from a brief spell in 2004, has always been in the Proteas set up. Now, he is gone.
His stats speak for themselves, and perhaps it is fitting that he finished on 999 international dismissals, the most ever. It just goes to show he was just a man doing the very best for his country, nothing more, nothing less. His form may have had its ups and downs, but Boucher’s commitment towards the cause was never in question.
Fond memories include him being at the wicket when South African won that one-day game at the Wanderers on March 12 2006 and assisting Graeme Smith in winning the Edgbaston Test in England in 2008 that led to South Africa’s first series victory in the country for decades. He was also part of the first South African side to beat Australia on home soil and retired as the second most capped South African ever after his friend Jacques Kallis.
His retirement means Kallis is the only man left within the Proteas set-up who was captained by Hansie Cronje. Boucher also played with Gary Kirsten and Allan Donald, both men now coaching the team. To put that into perspective, Hashim Amla was 14 and Wayne Parnell eight when Boucher made his Test debut.
Boucher leaving the game represents a passing of an era and with the exception of Kallis, the passing of a generation of cricketers that played a defining role as to what South Africa represents on the cricket field.
The true value of his achievements will only be better understood as his records age, but it is unlikely any other wicketkeeper to play the international game will ever surpass his milestones. He has laid a foundation, an intimidating one it should be said, for his successors to build on.
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