Proteas coach Mark Boucher’s legal defence for his disciplinary hearing will be bankrolled by a group of millionaire businessmen.
Boucher has been charged with “gross misconduct” by Cricket South Africa following allegations of racism made against him by former teammate Paul Adams during last year’s Social Justice and Nation-Building (SJN) hearings.
The spin bowler said his teammates – including Boucher – had referred to him as “brown s**t” during post-match fines meetings while singing an adaptation of Boney M’s “Brown Girl in the Ring”. Boucher was the team’s “fines master” in the late 1990s, but not the originator of the song.
Former assistant coach Enoch Nkwe’s resignation in August last year will also be addressed during Boucher’s disciplinary hearing. Nkwe claimed he had been “undermined” and reduced to being a “cones boy” in a “toxic working environment”.
According to Rapport newspaper, the group funding Boucher’s defence is outraged by CSA’s allegations of “overt and “subliminal racism” against Boucher and will spare no expense to ensure he gets the best defence money can buy.
On Saturday, businessman Johann Rupert responded on Twitter to a column headlined ‘Boucher should not be leading Proteas’ with: “Let’s wait for the legal team of @markb46 to examine the ‘evidence’ and call some witnesses.”
The seven-page charge sheet against Boucher stipulates that he is entitled to be represented by a legal representative of his own choice, at his own cost.
The disciplinary hearing will begin at 9am on Wednesday, when the respective legal teams meet to agree on a timetable.
Legal experts that Rapport spoke to believe the charge sheet against Boucher, although comprehensive, is badly drafted, which might allow his legal team room to manoeuvre.
A source said: “It’s vague, full of extraneous stuff and generally full of bullsh*t. It runs to seven pages because of the waffle, but could have been condensed into a page and a half.”
CSA released its statement on Boucher’s disciplinary hearing on Thursday, the day before the second ODI between the Proteas and India.
“You can only infer that the timing of the release was malicious,” said a source close to Boucher.
CSA’s statement posted on a media WhatsApp group on Thursday afternoon was headlined “[Graeme] Smith and Boucher to be suspended” before being deleted and the heading changed.
