Proteas Test captain Elgar comes out swinging in defence of Boucher

Proteas Test captain Dean Elgar has once again come out swinging in support of embattled coach Mark Boucher.

Boucher, who is leading the team on a two-match series against New Zealand later this month, will appear before a Cricket SA (CSA) disciplinary hearing in May. He is facing serious allegations of gross misconduct.

Charges against Boucher stem from a report from the Social Justice and Nation-building (SJN) hearings that found that he engaged in racist behaviour by participating in an overtly racist song that referred to Paul Adams as “a brown shit” during the team’s fines meetings, when the two were Proteas teammates.

Speaking during his highly charged departure press conference on Wednesday afternoon where he did not take kindly to repeated questions about Boucher and his forthcoming disciplinary hearing, Elgar reiterated that the team supports the coach.

“We still support him through this process because we know how much he adds to our system and our group,” he said as the Proteas prepared to fly to New Zealand on Wednesday night.

“We have had these tough times before and I would like to think that it is just another hurdle on our path that we are going to have to get over and cricket remains cricket and that is our priority. We need to stick together, which is what we have done in the past, and let this process follow its course. But we know that we are here to play cricket, win matches and win series — that’s ultimately the way I view it.

“In the same breath, we are still supporting our head coach because he is a massive part of our group.”

Elgar said he hopes Boucher’s situation will unite the team as they go all out to get the better of the Black Caps in the two games at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch.

“I would like to think the latter,” was Elgar’s response when asked whether Boucher’s situation would work against or for SA in New Zealand.

“We have moved forward in such a good nature and we have realised that cricket comes first for us irrespective of what our head coach is going through.”

In New Zealand, the Proteas will be without top-order batter Keegan Petersen, who has been ruled out after he tested positive for Covid-19 and replaced by Zubayr Hamza of Western Province.