Bail cuts Boucher's eye!
South Africa were reeling in Taunton from the loss of the most successful wicket keeper in the history of Test cricket, who was to have been a key figure in their bid to displace England from the top of the official world rankings over the next six weeks. But for Graeme Smith and the rest of his Proteas players, the greatest concern surrounded any permanent damage to Mark Boucher's sight.
Smith read out a statement from Boucher on the outfield at the County Ground in which the 35-year-old confirmed his immediate international retirement after having the white of his left eyeball lacerated by a bail when standing up to the leg-spinner Imran Tahir on the first day's cricket of the tour. "It is with sadness and some pain that I make this announcement," Boucher said. His eye is still too swollen for a prognosis on the long-term effects on his sight, but Boucher admitted that he will be flying home "on to a road of uncertain recovery".
He had been expected to retire at the end of a series that offered the opportunity to bring a suitably grand conclusion to an international career that began back in October 1997 in Sheikhupura, Pakistan. The third Test at Lord's would have been his 150th, and by then he would surely have become the first wicketkeeper ever to claim 1,000 victims in international cricket.
Instead he retires on 998 – 952 catches and 46 stumpings – plus a single catch taken in the outfield when AB de Villiers was keeping. As he also took a Test wicket as a bowler, becoming only the ninth wicketkeeper to do so when he had Dwayne Bravo caught in Antigua in 2005, he could even claim 1,000 dismissals after all.
"He'll go down as one of the greats in the game, certainly one of the greats of South African cricket," Smith said. "But right now we're more worried about Mark the person and getting him through this situation. For the 14 years of his South Africa career he has been a true Proteas warrior, a patriotic South African and a fighter who asked nothing and gave everything. He gave 100% for this team and he has been more than a performer – he has been a motivator, an inspirer and an energiser and a very good friend to many of us."
Boucher succeeded Dave Richardson as South Africa's first choice wicketkeeper in early 1998 and, barring a brief spell in 2004 when he was dropped, he has held that role ever since. That record of longevity over a 15-year period has been matched only by Pakistan's Wasim Bari and Deryck Murray of the West Indies, of wicketkeepers of the modern era.
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| Boucher's left eye injury photo |
He was still raw on the first of his three tours of England in 1998 when Bob Woolmer was South Africa's coach. Boucher described both Woolmer and Richard Pybus, his junior coach in East London who was recently appointed by Bangladesh, as major influences on his development.
All his coaches and team-mates praised his attitude, which was often shown in the valuable runs he scored low down the batting order – 5,515 in all, second only to Adam Gilchrist among keepers, at a healthy average of 30.3. Mickey Arthur, the former South Africa coach, reflected in the Old Trafford pavilion in his current role in charge of Australia on the key role Boucher had played in securing the series win when they were last in England in 2008.
"The Test match we won at Edgbaston was on the back of a very good innings by Graeme Smith," said Arthur. "But Bouch was there at the end of it, and in his fighting way I remember him pointing the bat at Alastair Cook in one instance. I remember him telling me at tea time, he said 'coach if I'm at the wicket, and I will be there, we're going to win the series, we didn't come all the way to lose this'. That just typified exactly what he was like. He was always in there, he was always up for a challenge.
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| Wicket-keeper Mark Boucher is rushed to hospital for emergency surgery after a freak accident at a Somerset vs South African friendly on Monday. |
"I know he wanted to come here because he wanted it to be his real swansong as a Test series, so it's really disappointing it ends this way for Mark. I've got lots of memories as his coach, too many memories. I was really close to Mark, I had a special affinity for him, I knew his family very well, for a time we lived in the same city, and I coached him at state level.
"I coached him for the period he was out of the South African side, when he got dropped for the first time and then got back into the team. So we went through a lot of hard times together, a lot of blood, sweat and tears with Bouch.
"I've been in contact, and it is uncertain for him. Let's just hope that he gets his eyesight back and everything's good."
South Africa's current coach, Gary Kirsten, confirmed that De Villiers will keep for the first Test which starts at The Oval next Thursday, but they are expected to call a replacement into the squad.
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