Mumbai, Sep 16 (IANS): The most successful team in IPL, Mumbai Indians have appointed former South African wicketkeeper-batter Mark Boucher as their head coach for the 2023 season.
Boucher had recently decided to leave his role as head coach of South Africa men's team after the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia next month.
Mumbai Indians, the winners of five IPL trophies, said in a statement on Friday that, "Mark Boucher has had a long and illustrious career as a wicket-keeper, batsman and holds the record for the most Test dismissals by a wicket-keeper. Post-retirement he took over as coach for Titans, a top-level cricket franchise in South Africa, and led them to five domestic titles. In 2019, Cricket South Africa appointed Mark Boucher as the head coach where he crafted 11 Test wins, 12 in ODIs and 23 T20I victories."
"It's a pleasure to welcome Mark Boucher to Mumbai Indians. With his proven expertise on the field and off it as a coach guiding his team to numerous victories, Mark will add immense value to MI and take forward its legacy," said Akash. M. Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Jio Infocomm.
"It is an honour and privilege to be appointed as Head Coach of MI. Their history and achievements as a franchise clearly put them up there as one of the most successful sporting franchises in all of world sport. I look forward to the challenge and respect the need for results. It's a strong unit with great leadership and players. I look forward to adding value to this dynamic unit," said Boucher.
Under Boucher, the Proteas are currently No. 2 on the ICC World Test Championship table. His last series at the helm will be a white-ball tour of India from September 28 to October 11 before heading to the T20 World Cup in Australia, where South Africa are grouped alongside Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. The tournament will run from October 16 to November 13.
Recently, Mumbai Indians had announced that head coach Mahela Jayawardene and director of cricket operations Zaheer Khan were being elevated to new roles as part of the franchise's central team for its growing global cricket footprint.
Jayawardene, the former Sri Lanka skipper who became the head coach of the franchise in 2017 and under whom MI won three IPL titles, has been appointed as the Global Head of Performance. Zaheer, ex-India left-arm pacer, who joined the side as Director of Cricket Operations in 2018, has been appointed as Global Head of Cricket Development.