Proteas coach Mark Boucher is being dubbed as the new favourite for a coaching role amongst IPL franchises for the upcoming edition. Despite the 2-1 loss to England in the recently-concluded Test series, Boucher seems to have earned quite a few fans in India.
South Africa’s impressive showing, of late, has resulted in a few lucrative job opportunities for the coach in the IPL, be it in the league itself or elsewhere, and the word in India is that the former Proteas stumper has accepted an offer.
Mark Boucher is being shortlisted by IPL franchise that owns a team in South Africa League too
According to reports from Cricbuzz, talks are ongoing between Boucher’s team and a couple of IPL franchises amongst which one has a team in the South Africa league (SA20) too. After prolonged negotiations, Boucher is believed to have accepted the offer with some discussions still underway if he will coach the IPL side in India, or in SA20 or at both places. Also unclear is if he will keep his South Africa job.
There is some talk that Boucher will leave the South Africa team after the T20 World Cup in Australia in October-November. A spokesperson for the South African team expressed ignorance while Boucher himself and his manager did not respond to repeated queries from this website.
Mark Boucher can be eligible to remain as South Africa coach and take over T20 responsibilities simultaneously
Enoch Nkwe, who replaced Graeme Smith as a director in Cricket South Africa (CSA), said, “I don’t know anything about Mark resigning but will wait until he returns to SA after the Test match to find out exactly what’s going on. The IPL franchise that has made an offer to Boucher said it is still in the process of finalising its coach.”
The CSA is yet to specify its policy if a national coach can be part of the SA20 league too but Boucher should have no problem continuing with both IPL as well as his national jobs. The restriction is only for the support staff of the Indian team who are barred by the BCCI from holding positions in both places.
