Mark Boucher May Convince AB de Villiers to Come Out of His Retirement

Mark Boucher, the new head coach of South Africa will try to convince AB de Villiers to come out of his international retirement for the upcoming T20 World Cup. Graeme Smith, the CSA’s director of cricket confirmed the appointment of former wicketkeeper-batsman Boucher on Saturday (December 14).

He said Boucher will “bring the toughness to turn a young and inexperienced Proteas squad into a battle-ready outfit”. Moreover, Mark Boucher didn’t rule out the idea of turning to Kolpak players and recent retirees in the squad for the next year’s T20 World Cup.

“When you go to a World Cup, you want your best players playing for you,” Boucher was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. “If I feel he is one of your best players, why wouldn’t I want to have a conversation with him? I’ve only just got into the job, I might have conversations with quite a few players and see where they are.”

He further added: “You want your best players playing in the World Cup and if there’s a couple of issues you need to iron out, with media, with team-mates, and if it’s for the good of South Africa, why not, let’s do it.”

South Africa has been going through a rough patch in recent times. Faf du Plessis led South Africa failed to qualify for the last-four stage in the ICC World Cup 2019 in July. After that, they had a rather forgettable tour of India, where they lost the 3-0 in the Test series.

Although Mark Boucher doesn’t have any authority on selecting players who earlier moved overseas to take up Kolpak contracts, he can call upon them.

“If I can answer from a coach’s perspective, absolutely. If you look at rugby, the way the Springboks won the World Cup, the experience they got from players playing overseas was invaluable.” he expressed.

“From a coach’s perspective, I’d love to have the opportunity to deepen and strengthen the squad. It will keep everyone on their toes and will bring more excellence into the game in this country,” he concluded.