We must motivate ourselves in Mark Boucher’s absence – Cricket News Update
South Africa’s ace cricketer, AB de Villiers, has admitted that his side faced a massive setback in shape of Mark Boucher’s career-ending injury, but said that the Proteas should use the incident to raise their game for the all-important series.
A dislodged bail struck Boucher’s eye in South Africa’s side match against Somerset earlier this week. The severe injury called for a three-hour long surgery and was enough to make the wicketkeeper announce his retirement from the game.
The cricketer from Cape Province is extremely hard to replace as he remains one of the greatest glovemen of the game’s history. The team management has called up Thami Tsolekile, the 31-year-old keeper as a cover, but De Villiers is most likely to take the responsibility on his shoulders.
South Africa’s limited-overs skipper expressed that it will not be easy for his team to get over the Boucher incident, as the wicketkeeper was an integral part of the team since the last 15 years. De Villiers revealed that his Test captain, Graeme Smith, forgot during yesterday’s training session that the legendary cricketer is not with the squad anymore.
The 28-year-old confessed that his team is finding it hard to focus on the game but urged the boys to move forward and win the series against England to pay tribute to Boucher.
"In our keeping drills today, Smithy even called me Bouch at one stage, and I was like, 'it's me now.' He will be there in the back of our minds but it's more for inspiration as much as anything else. He'll take us a long way to winning this series," De Villiers said.
The aggressive batsman was all praise for the outgoing cricketer, who he expressed, was his mentor and helped him develop his game. De Villiers believes that he would not have been the same player without Boucher’s support.
He added, "He's been an idol in South African cricket for many years. He's been the rock, the guy with the guts. He's someone who was there when I started off my career, who looked after me, took me under his wing and helped me a lot in my cricket."
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