Mark Boucher
Encyclopedia
Mark Verdon Boucher is a South Africa
n cricket
er, who holds the record for the most Test
dismissals
by a wicket-keeper
. He was educated at Selborne College
and has represented Border, Africa XI
, ICC World XI, Royal Challengers Bangalore
and Kolkata Knight Riders of the Indian Premier League
, and South Africa
. He has been a regular feature of the South African side since the 1997/1998 tour to Australia.
. He got the record originally when he overtook the former Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy
in the first test of the Bank Alfalah
Test Series versus Pakistan in Karachi
on 3 October 2007 when he stumped Umar Gul
off the bowling of Paul Harris. He then lost the record to Adam Gilchrist
before regaining it when he caught Mushfiqur Rahim
of Bangladesh in February 2008. Boucher is also second on the all-time list in One Day Internationals, also behind Adam Gilchrist
. He once held the record for the highest score by a nightwatchman
in Test cricket with 125 for South Africa v Zimbabwe at Harare
in 1999-00. On 12 March 2006 he hit the winning runs for South Africa against Australia
in what had been the Greatest One Day International
ever played.
Later in 2006, on 20 September, he made his maiden ODI century, hitting an unbeaten
147 against Zimbabwe
from a mere 68 balls. His hundred came up off just 44 balls, the second-fastest ODI century ever. Boucher did benefit, however, from some very poor Zimbabwean fielding, being dropped no fewer than six times during his innings. He has played over one hundred consecutive ODIs for his country and is one of only eleven players, including Hansie Cronjé
and Shaun Pollock
, to achieve this. In February 2007 he and Jacques Kallis
combined to hit Mohammad Asif for 28 runs off an over in an ODI at Centurion. It broke the South African record for most runs off an over which was previously held by both Shaun Pollock and Graeme Smith
with 27. However, this was later broken by Herschelle Gibbs
with 36 runs off one over, the most possible without no-balls or wides.
In the period while the team was under Shaun Pollock's leadership, Boucher was the regular vice-captain of the team and lead the team in tests four times. These matches includes a victory over Australia, an achievement which Pollock could not manage. Boucher started his 2007 World Cup campaign in good form with a 21-ball half century, the then fastest in World Cup history (before being beaten by Brendon McCullum's
20-ball effort six days later) - scoring 75 not out against the Netherlands as South Africa scored 353 for 4 wickets in a rain-shortened World Cup match. However, this was overshadowed by Herschelle Gibbs's six sixes in an over, the 3rd time ever in world cricket and first time in a One Day International match, and thus in the World Cup. He became the first wicketkeeper in the history of test cricket to reach the milestone of 400 dismissals when he caught Danish Kaneria
off the bowling of Makhaya Ntini
on October 10, 2007 in the second test of the Bank Alfalah Test Series against Pakistan at Gaddafi Stadium
, Lahore
.
Despite being South Africa's consistent wicket-keeper for a long time, age meant that batsman AB de Villiers was given a chance with the gloves and he impressed. However de Villiers is one of the teams best outfielders and therefore Boucher continued to feature in the team. He participated in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20
and the South African coach Corrie van Zyl
said that both Boucher and Herschelle Gibbs
have the chance to get back in the team. He stated that Boucher will get his chance in the team provided that he performs in the domestic ODI tournament he also stated that both of them had a good chance in playing for the 2011 Cricket World Cup
He was however still selected for the Test series against Pakistan and continues to be South Africa's number one test wicket-keeper Also during that time Boucher recovered from his six-week shoulder injury and stated that he is desperate for a return to international cricket. He stated that his main aim was to participate in the 2011 Cricket World Cup
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er, who holds the record for the most Test
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
dismissals
Dismissal (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a dismissal occurs when the batsman is out . Colloquially, the fielding team is also said to have snared, bagged or captured a wicket. At this point a batsman must discontinue batting and leave the field permanently for the innings...
by a wicket-keeper
Wicket-keeper
The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike...
. He was educated at Selborne College
Selborne College
Selborne College is a public, male-only school in East London, Eastern Cape, South Africa.-History:Selborne College was founded in 1872 by Pastor Heinrich Muller, a German settler, and at that stage was known as the Panmure Public School...
and has represented Border, Africa XI
Africa XI cricket team
The African XI cricket team is a representative team of the continent of Africa and represents it during the Afro-Asia Cup.-History:The African cricket team originated when Jagmohan Dalmiya thought up the Afro-Asian Cup, which was to raise money for both the African Cricket Association and the...
, ICC World XI, Royal Challengers Bangalore
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Royal Challengers Bangalore is a cricket team based in Bangalore that plays in the Indian Premier League and currently lead by Daniel Vettori. The team is owned by Dr...
and Kolkata Knight Riders of the Indian Premier League
Indian Premier League
The Indian Premier League is a professional league for Twenty20 cricket competition in India. It was initiated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India , headquartered in Mumbai, and is supervised by BCCI Vice President Rajeev Shukla, who serves as the league's Chairman and Commissioner...
, and South Africa
South African cricket team
The South African national cricket team represent South Africa in international cricket. They are administrated by Cricket South Africa.South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council, also known as ICC, with Test and One Day International, or ODI, status...
. He has been a regular feature of the South African side since the 1997/1998 tour to Australia.
Notable achievements
Boucher is currently, and has been so ever since he replaced Dave Richardson, South Africa's first-choice wicketkeeper, and is widely regarded as one of, if not the, greatest wicketkeepers South Africa has ever had. He holds the record for the most dismissals in Test cricketTest cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
. He got the record originally when he overtook the former Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy
Ian Healy
Ian Andrew Healy is a former cricketer who played for Queensland and Australia. A specialist wicketkeeper and useful right-hand middle-order batsman, he made an unheralded entry to international cricket in 1988, after only six first-class games. His work ethic and combativeness was much needed...
in the first test of the Bank Alfalah
Bank Alfalah
Bank Alfalah Limited is a private bank in Pakistan owned by the Abu Dhabi Group. Bank Alfalah was incorporated on June 21, 1992 as a public limited company under the Companies Ordinance 1984. Its banking operations commenced from November 1, 1992...
Test Series versus Pakistan in Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
on 3 October 2007 when he stumped Umar Gul
Umar Gul
Umar Gul is a Pakistani right arm fast medium bowler in cricket who has played Test matches, One Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals for the Pakistani cricket team...
off the bowling of Paul Harris. He then lost the record to Adam Gilchrist
Adam Gilchrist
Adam Craig Gilchrist AM , nicknamed "Gilly" or "Churchy", is an Australian international cricketer who currently captains Kings XI Punjab and recently captained Middlesex. He is an attacking left-handed batsman and record-breaking wicket-keeper, who redefined the role for the Australian national...
before regaining it when he caught Mushfiqur Rahim
Mushfiqur Rahim
Mohammad Mushfiqur Rahim is a Bangladeshi cricketer and captain of the national team. Between August 2009 and December 2010 Rahim served as Bangladesh's vice-captain. He specialises as a wicket-keeper and is a lower-order batsman...
of Bangladesh in February 2008. Boucher is also second on the all-time list in One Day Internationals, also behind Adam Gilchrist
Adam Gilchrist
Adam Craig Gilchrist AM , nicknamed "Gilly" or "Churchy", is an Australian international cricketer who currently captains Kings XI Punjab and recently captained Middlesex. He is an attacking left-handed batsman and record-breaking wicket-keeper, who redefined the role for the Australian national...
. He once held the record for the highest score by a nightwatchman
Nightwatchman (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a nightwatchman is a lower-order batsman who comes in to bat higher up the order than usual near the end of the day's play...
in Test cricket with 125 for South Africa v Zimbabwe at Harare
Harare
Harare before 1982 known as Salisbury) is the largest city and capital of Zimbabwe. It has an estimated population of 1,600,000, with 2,800,000 in its metropolitan area . Administratively, Harare is an independent city equivalent to a province. It is Zimbabwe's largest city and its...
in 1999-00. On 12 March 2006 he hit the winning runs for South Africa against Australia
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
in what had been the Greatest One Day International
Australia in South Africa, 5th ODI, 2006
The 5th One Day International cricket match between South Africa and Australia was played on 12 March 2006 at New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg. The match broke many cricket records, including both the first and the second team innings score of over 400 runs. Australia won the toss and elected to...
ever played.
Later in 2006, on 20 September, he made his maiden ODI century, hitting an unbeaten
Not out
In cricket, a batsman will be not out if he comes out to bat in an innings and has not been dismissed by the end of the innings. One may similarly describe a batsman as not out while the innings is still in progress...
147 against Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean cricket team
The Zimbabwean cricket team is a national cricket team representing Zimbabwe. It is administrated by Zimbabwe Cricket...
from a mere 68 balls. His hundred came up off just 44 balls, the second-fastest ODI century ever. Boucher did benefit, however, from some very poor Zimbabwean fielding, being dropped no fewer than six times during his innings. He has played over one hundred consecutive ODIs for his country and is one of only eleven players, including Hansie Cronjé
Hansie Cronje
Wessel Johannes "Hansie" Cronje was a South African cricketer and captain of the South African national cricket team in the 1990s...
and Shaun Pollock
Shaun Pollock
Shaun Maclean Pollock is a retired South African cricketer who is considered a bowling all-rounder. From 2000 to 2003 he was the captain of the South African cricket team, and also played for Africa XI, World XI, Dolphins and Warwickshire. He was also chosen as the Wisden Cricketer of the Year in...
, to achieve this. In February 2007 he and Jacques Kallis
Jacques Kallis
Jacques Henry Kallis is a South African cricketer. As an all-rounder he is a formidable right-handed batsman and fast-medium swingbowler. He is one of the greatest all-rounders of all time, being the only cricketer in the history of the game to hold more than 12,000 runs and 250 wickets in both...
combined to hit Mohammad Asif for 28 runs off an over in an ODI at Centurion. It broke the South African record for most runs off an over which was previously held by both Shaun Pollock and Graeme Smith
Graeme Smith
Graeme Craig Smith is a South African cricketer and captain of the South African cricket team Test Match side, having succeeded Shaun Pollock after the 2003 Cricket World Cup...
with 27. However, this was later broken by Herschelle Gibbs
Herschelle Gibbs
Herschelle Herman Gibbs is a South African cricketer, more specifically a batsman.Gibbs was schooled at St Joseph's Marist College and then Diocesan College in Rondebosch...
with 36 runs off one over, the most possible without no-balls or wides.
In the period while the team was under Shaun Pollock's leadership, Boucher was the regular vice-captain of the team and lead the team in tests four times. These matches includes a victory over Australia, an achievement which Pollock could not manage. Boucher started his 2007 World Cup campaign in good form with a 21-ball half century, the then fastest in World Cup history (before being beaten by Brendon McCullum's
Brendon McCullum
Brendon Barrie McCullum is a New Zealand international cricketer, who plays for the Otago Volts at provincial level. He is a wicket-keeper, as well as an aggressive batsman who opens in One-day Internationals and is known for his fast scoring rate...
20-ball effort six days later) - scoring 75 not out against the Netherlands as South Africa scored 353 for 4 wickets in a rain-shortened World Cup match. However, this was overshadowed by Herschelle Gibbs's six sixes in an over, the 3rd time ever in world cricket and first time in a One Day International match, and thus in the World Cup. He became the first wicketkeeper in the history of test cricket to reach the milestone of 400 dismissals when he caught Danish Kaneria
Danish Kaneria
Danish Prabha Shanker Kaneria is a Pakistani cricketer . Danish Kaneria has continued the tradition of great Pakistani leg spin bowlers and possesses a very well disguised googly...
off the bowling of Makhaya Ntini
Makhaya Ntini
Makhaya Ntini is a former South African cricketer who was the first ethnically black player to play for the South African team. A fast bowler, he tends to bowl from wide of the crease with brisk, although not express, pace...
on October 10, 2007 in the second test of the Bank Alfalah Test Series against Pakistan at Gaddafi Stadium
Gaddafi Stadium
Gaddafi Stadium is a cricket ground in Lahore, Pakistan. It was designed by Daghestani-born architect and engineer Nasreddin Murat-Khan who also designed Lahore's Minar-e-Pakistan and constructed by Mian Abdul Khaliq and Company in 1959. Following the ground's renovation for the 1996 Cricket World...
, Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
.
Despite being South Africa's consistent wicket-keeper for a long time, age meant that batsman AB de Villiers was given a chance with the gloves and he impressed. However de Villiers is one of the teams best outfielders and therefore Boucher continued to feature in the team. He participated in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20
2010 ICC World Twenty20
-------------------------------------------------Group A:---------Group B:---------Group C:---------Group D:---------Super 8s:...
and the South African coach Corrie van Zyl
Corrie van Zyl
Cornelius Johannes Petrus Gerthardus van Zyl in Bloemfontein, Free State is a former South African cricketer who played two One Day Internationals in 1992...
said that both Boucher and Herschelle Gibbs
Herschelle Gibbs
Herschelle Herman Gibbs is a South African cricketer, more specifically a batsman.Gibbs was schooled at St Joseph's Marist College and then Diocesan College in Rondebosch...
have the chance to get back in the team. He stated that Boucher will get his chance in the team provided that he performs in the domestic ODI tournament he also stated that both of them had a good chance in playing for the 2011 Cricket World Cup
2011 Cricket World Cup
The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was the tenth Cricket World Cup. It was played in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. It was Bangladesh's first time co-hosting a World Cup...
He was however still selected for the Test series against Pakistan and continues to be South Africa's number one test wicket-keeper Also during that time Boucher recovered from his six-week shoulder injury and stated that he is desperate for a return to international cricket. He stated that his main aim was to participate in the 2011 Cricket World Cup
2011 Cricket World Cup
The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was the tenth Cricket World Cup. It was played in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. It was Bangladesh's first time co-hosting a World Cup...