Profile SA

Featuring profiles of South Africans

Saturday, January 12, 2013

MARK BOUCHER



After a sport-immersed youth and an illustrious cricketing career, retired South African cricketer and star wicketkeeper, Mark Boucher, has come out to bat for our endangered rhino. Despite a career limiting eye injury on the field in July Boucher has taken on the role of rhino ambassador and hopes to raise more than R1-million to help put a stop to the poaching of our iconic rhino.

Born into a sports-mad family on the 3 December 1976, Mark Verdon Boucher grew up in East London in the Eastern Cape, and completed his schooling at the boys-only Selbourne College. Sports practice – and lots of it – featured prominently in his early life; Boucher represented Border for schools cricket, squash, swimming, tennis, cross-county running and rugby.

The ambitious youngster went on to play for the South African Schools cricket and squash teams and continued playing competitive squash up to national under-21 level. After playing cricket for South African Schools in 1994, Boucher was selected for the South Africa Under-19 side for tours against England in 1995. That’s when he decided that cricket was going to be his life.

Boucher, who had completed the first year of a sports management degree at the University of Port Elizabeth before being selected for the National Cricket Academy, went on to represent Border, Africa 11s, ICC world 11s, the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League, as well as South Africa.

He quickly earned the nickname Guinness for the number of records he broke – becoming the youngest or fastest to many cricketing records and milestones.

As a Protea’s player, he was highly regarded as one of South Africa’s greatest wicketkeepers and holds the record for the most dismissals in test cricket. Feisty and driven to succeed, Boucher took the record from Australian wicketkeeper, Ian Healy, in 2007, lost it to Adam Gilchrist, another Aussies player, and then regained the title in February 2008.

Boucher is also second, behind Gilchrist, on the all-time list for One Day International wickets. Also a well-regarded batsman he made his maiden One Day International century in 2006, hitting an unbeaten 147 off 68 balls. With his hundred coming of 44 balls this was also the second fastest One Day International century ever scored.

He has played in 294 One Day Internationals and is one of eleven South Africa players to have played more than one hundred consecutive One Day Internationals for his country. IN 2007 Boucher grabbed the South Africa record for the most runs off an over, but this has since been beaten by Herschelle Gibbs’ 36 runs off an over – the highest score possible without no-balls or wides.

Boucher was voted South African player of the year in 1998, 2000 and 2006 and Wisden Cricketer of the year in 2009, but his career was cut shot a few months before he had planned to retire.

On 9 July last year Boucher was injured when a wicket bail stuck his left eye during a game in Somerset, part of South Africa’s test tour against England. Boucher underwent eye surgery and resigned from international cricket the following day. His doctors are hopeful of a 50% restoration of vision following further surgery.

Boucher has bounced back from his career and lifestyle changing injury, and in conjunction with South African Breweries (SAB), has started a campaign to help protect South Africa’s critically endangered rhino.

As passionate about conservation as he is about cricket, Boucher plans to do his bit to fight on-going rhino poaching as SAB’s Castle Larger Rhino Ambassador.

Together they have formed the SAB-Boucher Conservation non-profit company and hope to raise R1-million in the first year of their Rhino in Safe Hands campaign. With SAB donating R300 000 towards the set-up costs all the money raised by the campaign will be put towards saving rhino.

Our endangered rhino population is being decimated at a rate of almost two per day, and the long-term aim of the project is to raise enough money to register all of South Africa’s 18 000 remaining rhino on the national rhino database. This DNA database of rhinos will enable recovered rhino horns to be traced and matched to crime scenes. The database has already been used to successfully prosecute a number of rhino poachers and the registration of more rhino will help in both investigations and prosecutions.

Boucher and SAB have been able to attract some prestigious patrons to their cause, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Dr Ali Bacher, and Dr Ian Player and their long-term goal is to extend the reach of the non-profit organisation and support other species that might benefit in a similar way from national DNA registration.