Ali Bacher has come out to bat for beleaguered South African cricket coach Mark Boucher, who is embroiled in a racism storm.
Bacher, former South African cricket captain and an administrator of the United Cricket Board of SA, believes Boucher must stay in his position as head coach of the Proteas because he has apologised for calling his former teammate Paul Adams “brown s**t”.
This was revealed by Adams when he appeared before Cricket SA’s Social Justice and Nation Building (SJN) hearings chaired by advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza. Adams said that Boucher had called him “brown s**t” when the two were teammates in the Proteas.
Bacher said the Proteas coach, who jetted out with his team on a tour to Sri Lanka this week, must be left alone to carry on with his job.
“Let me simply put it like this: Mark Boucher is one of the best cricketers this country has every produced. He has apologised for what he has said previously. We all make mistakes,” Bacher said.
“You’ve got to be big enough to say I’m sorry. If he didn’t do that I’d think hard about it and I’d say he should go. But he apologised and must stay.”
When asked if he believed Boucher’s apology was sincere, Bacher said he was confident it was. “I’m pretty sure the apology is genuine. I make mistakes. You make mistakes. He has apologised. What more do you want from him?
“I’ll be confident his apology is genuine and on that basis it should be accepted.”
Bacher suggested that Adams and Boucher, and other people who have appeared at the SJN hearings, should be locked in a room to thrash out their issues and only be let out once they have had an honest conversation.
That process, he said, should be driven by highly regarded independent persons who have no connection to cricket.
“You need to get all these people together; they need to be honest, open and frank and go forward as one new united body of cricket. We need to start a new era in South African cricket.
“We need to get independent facilitators, someone with stature and credibility in this country, to lock the bloody door and get these guys to be honest with each other.
“Not only Adams and Boucher. We want one force, one united body. Not blacks. Not whites. We will not be a force in world cricket if the whites dominate or blacks dominate.
“Get a credible independent facilitator who has that feel to bring people together like Nelson Mandela. Where mistakes have been made they must be accepted. I promise you will get a way forward.
“Relations between white and black are the worst that they’ve ever been. It is miles apart,” Bacher said.
“We need to come together again. We need another Nelson Mandela. In my opinion, at the moment the people of this country — not only in cricket — are more divided. What this country needs to do — not only in cricket — is to go back to what the great Nelson Mandela said: we need to create a united nonracial South Africa. There is division — not only in cricket — and the blacks and whites are miles apart. We need to stop that.
“When I was running South African cricket there was tension between one white administrator and one black. They were at each other all the time. I called the team together and put them in my room where I worked. I locked them in there and said sort it out and knock on the door when you are done.”
We need to come together again. We need another Nelson Mandela
— Ali Bacher, former South African cricket captain and an administrator of the United Cricket Board of SA
Bacher said he has not had contact with Boucher. “The last I spoke to him was after his eye injury when I interviewed him for the show In Conversation.”
He proposed the names of Cheryl Carolus and Dikgang Moseneke as independent facilitators. “Cheryl was the high commissioner [in London].
"I heard her speak to our team for an hour [when SA drew with Australia in the 1999 Cricket World Cup semifinal and lost out on a place in the final].
“She was like a mother to all of them and gave them so much hope, calmed them down and gave an inspirational talk to a South African team that had just drawn with Australia, and on points Australia went to the 1999 World Cup final.
“The other person is the former deputy chief justice, advocate [Dikgang] Moseneke. He went to Robben Island, got his law degree and became highly regarded in that.
“In the ’90s he came to quite a few of the cricket matches. I sat next to him and he is mad about cricket. They are independent, quality South Africans. You must have independent people who are not linked to any cricket and sporting body.”
Attempts to reach Adams for comment were unsuccessful as his phone was not answered and he did not respond to messages.
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