Mark Boucher, the head coach of the Proteas, has been charged with ‘gross misconduct’ by Cricket South Africa (CSA), the sport’s governing body in the country.
The charges have arisen from revelations at CSA’s ‘Social Justice and Nation Building’ (SJN) hearings, held earlier this year, where accusations of racism were levelled at a number of former players, Boucher among them.
The charge sheet said Boucher had ‘historically repeatedly used racist and/or offensive and/or inappropriate nicknames regarding a Proteas team-mate’. This was related to claims by former Proteas spinner, Paul Adams, that there had been a team song which referred to Adams as a ‘brown shit’.
Boucher was also accused of behaving ‘in a racist or subliminally racist manner’ as well as bringing CSA into disrepute.
Boucher was also charged with treating former Proteas assistant coach, Enoch Nkwe, poorly. Another charge on the misconduct sheet was that Boucher had mishandled the issue of ‘Black Lives Matter’ by dealing with the concerns of white players himself and asking for a black colleague to handle the concerns of black players.
Boucher was quoted as saying: ‘I look forward to dealing with and defending these allegations which have been made and will do so at the hearing in due course. For now I am solely focused on my duties as head coach of the Proteas.’
The hearing is due to commence on 26 January.
The timing of the release of the charges against Boucher was questioned by some observers, who noted that the Proteas are in the midst of an ODI series against India.
[Photo: Gallo Images]