JOHANNESBURG – Mark Boucher said he will “co-operate fully” with the Social Justice and Nation Building project after it was alleged he was among a group of Proteas players, who racially discriminated against a teammate in his playing days.
Boucher, the current head coach of the men’s national team, was thrust into the spotlight following testimony given by Paul Adams last week, in which the former wrist spinner, claimed that Boucher along with other South African teammates in the late 1990s called Adams ‘brown shit,’ in a team song.
“The allegations in the media currently are hurtful, factually incorrect and do not serve the greater good of our country or the intentions of the SJN in mending past hurts and building relations,” Boucher said in a statement released on Friday evening. He was asked by the SJN, which is chaired, by the ombud, Adv. Dumisa Ntsebeza, to respond to the allegations.
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“My intentions are to co-operate fully with all requests made by the Ombudsman, so that the objectives of the SJN can be achieved,” Boucher added.
The SJN has furnished Boucher with documents and he said he would be giving them consideration over the course of the next week.
It has also been confirmed that Boucher has not served court papers on Adams as had been claimed on a radio sports show.
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The SJN project was established last year by Cricket SA after a call by Lungi Ngidi for the current Proteas to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement, exposed an undercurrent of racism within South African cricket.
Adams’s testimony to the SJN, along with those of several other black former Proteas players, has painted a horrendous picture of South African teams in the post unity era, with divisions drawn along racial lines.
Adams, after an inquiry from one of the SJN assistants, Adv Fumisa Ngqele, said during his testimony that he was called ‘brown shit,’ by teammates, but didn’t take it up with anyone, nor speak of it to anyone besides close friends and relatives, until the SJN hearings. “For me, when I thought about it, and my wife kept telling me, ‘why do they call you that?’ then I realised it wasn’t right,” Adams testified.
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“I’m just highlighting that it should never happen and if we take this forward in the right way, we will have a lot more respect for each other. Maybe he (Boucher) should come and say sorry,” Adams told the SJN.
It is understood that Boucher has been trying to contact Adams, since he arrived back in the country from Ireland at the weekend, but he’s not been successful.
IOL Sport