Mark Boucher – gladiator walks into sunset, a hero all the way

Boucher overcame his limitations and became one of the finest wicket-keepers and a competitive batsman in the game. His fierce competitive spirit what would be missed the most following an on-field eye-injury which ended his celebrated career. Nishad Pai Vaidya looks back at Boucher’s career and analyses where he stands when compared to great keepers in the history of cricket.

Throughout his career, Mark Boucher fought a hard battle on the cricket field. He overcame his limitations and became one of the finest wicket-keepers and a competitive batsman in the game. His fierce competitive spirit what would be missed the most following an on-field eye-injury which ended his celebrated career.

 

Nishad Pai Vaidya looks back at Boucher’s career and analyses where he stands when compared to great keepers in the history of cricket.

 

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A gladiator walks into sunset – wounded but not defeated. Mark Verdon Boucher’s celebrated career came to an uncharacteristic and anti-climactic end when he injured his eye during a game against Somerset in South Africa’s ongoing tour to England. Fate has been cruel to Boucher as the England tour was supposed to be his swansong – one that ended too prematurely. Boucher, who has 999 international dismissals, will go down in history as a fierce competitor who gave it everything.

 

The first thing that strikes you about Boucher isn’t so much his cricketing ability but his attitude. Whenever he walks out to keep wickets or even bat, there is an air of positivity around him. Those positive vibes can be interpreted as the acceptance of a challenge. And time and again we have seen him deliver performances that have symbolised this spirit. That attitude has helped him overcome some of his limitations and blossom into a fantastic cricketer who has left his mark on the international scene.

 

That competitive spirit sometimes resulted in verbal volleys. Boucher never shied away from a fight and sledged the batsmen from behind the stumps. Even when bowlers had a word with him, it wasn’t just his bat or tremendous grit that did the talking. His body language commanded respect.

 

Throughout his career, Boucher kept wickets to some of the finest fast bowlers in recent times. Since re-admission into international cricket, South Africa have produced a plethora of fast bowlers such as Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel to name a few. To have a career as a long as Boucher had while keeping to such high-quality fast bowlers speaks volumes for his class and consistency. On many occasions, he has converted half chances to contribute tremendously to these bowlers’ wicket columns. Through all that, he made it look easy – as all great players.

 

As a lower order batsman, Boucher packed a punch and gave South Africa the edge. When the Proteas lost quick wickets, often Boucher walked in and took control of the situation. On a number of occasions, he has helped them win games from a position of crisis. Perhaps, his most memorable moment with the bat was hitting the winning runs during the famous run-chase of 434 against Australia at Johannesburg in 2006. Through the mindless carnage, Boucher maintained his calm to take South Africa beat mindboggling odds. The fact that he played 43 deliveries for his unbeaten half century bears testament to his remarkable temperament. There would have been a temptation to join the crazy hitting around him, but he focused on the larger cause at hand.

 

 

Boucher’s career coincided with arguably the greatest-ever wicket-keeper batsman, Adam Gilchrist. Both arrived on the international scene in the late 1990s and a close competition raged between them until the Aussie hanged his boots in 2008. Gilchrist was more dynamic with the bat as he opened the batting for Australia in One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and stole the show upfront. In Tests, Gilchrist batted lower down the order like Boucher. But the Aussie scored 17 hundreds compared to Boucher’s five. As keepers, both kept wickets to great bowlers and did a splendid job. The only difference being that Gilchrist kept to a spinner of the calibre of Shane Warne, while Boucher faced a predominantly pace attack.

 

Here is a list of top wicket keepers in Tests:

 

Player	M	Ct	St	Total	Dismissals per match
Mark Boucher	147	532	23	555	3.77
Adam Gilchrist	96	379	37	416	4.33
Ian Healy	119	366	29	395	3.32
Rodney Marsh	96	343	12	355	3.70
Jeff Dujon	81	265	5	270	3.33
Alan Knott	95	250	19	269	2.83

 

Boucher is miles ahead and has clearly played more games than the other illustrious names in this table. Only Gilchrist has better dismissals per match ratio. Had he played the same number of games as Boucher, things could have become more interesting.

Let us have a look at the top wicket-keepers in ODIs:

 

Player	M	Ct	St	Total	Dismissals per inns
Adam Gilchrist	287	417	55	472	1.68
Mark Boucher	295	403	22	425	1.46
Kumar Sangakkara	330	305	81	386	1.37
Moin Khan	219	214	73	287	1.37
MS Dhoni	206	193	65	258	1.27
Ian Healy	168	194	39	233	1.39

 

Gilchrist is the clear leader in ODIs despite playing fewer games than Boucher. The most interesting thing about the two tables is that it reflects the kind of attacks they have kept to. Most of them faced strong pace batteries and as a result they have lesser stumpings. On the other hand if, one looks at the sub-continental wicket-keepers such as Kumar Sangakkara, Moin Khan and MS Dhoni, their stumpings’ column would reflect their teams’ reliance on spin.

 

The sheer longevity of Boucher’s career is what makes his feats more remarkable. For a wicket-keeper to have played both formats for a number of years speaks of exceptional fitness and persistence. It is a very strenuous task. The repeated sit-ups, changing ends, standing up etc.  puts enormous strain on the knees. To do it for over 15 years, in 400–plus games is simply brilliant.

 

Surprisingly, there were occasions when he was dropped. In 2004, Thami Tsolekile was picked for a few Tests before Boucher made a comeback and never looked back. In 2010, his ODI career looked over when South Africa looked at other options ahead of the 2011 World Cup. However, he returned in coloured clothing in October last year for a few games.

 

Sadly, there wouldn’t be comebacks this time and it is almost as if the injury was the only way to stop him from continuing the battle.

 

(Nishad Pai Vaidya is a club-level cricketer with an analytic mind and a sharp eye. It was this sharpness which spotted a wrong replay in IPL4 resulting in Sachin Tendulkar’s dismissal. Some of his analytical pieces have come in for high praise from cerebral former cricketers. Nishad can also be followed on Twitter)

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