Boucher takes responsibility for SA’s loss versus Pak

Centurion [South Africa], April 18 (ANI): South Africa head coach Mark Boucher has taken full responsibility for his side’s loss in the ODI and T20I series against Pakistan.

Under Boucher’s tenure, the Proteas have lost eight of their 11 series but the head coach believes his side is on the right track and the results will start going their way.

Pakistan defeated hosts South Africa 2-1 in the ODI series while in the T20I format, Babar Azam-led side won the series 3-1.

“I take a massive amount of responsibility and I should. I don’t shy away from it. I am hurt, I am extremely hurt at the moment, as is the rest of the management and coaching staff. We put a lot of hard work and effort into this. But there’s no panic from me yet because I do understand that we have been given some trying circumstances over the last period of time and we will continue to put in hard work,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Boucher as saying.

South Africa was without its core group of players for T20I series against Pakistan as they received NoCs to participate in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

“I am not going to make excuses. We’ve still got to try and win with whichever players we put on the park but it has been tough. There have been a lot of positives. With the opportunities that have been given, a couple of guys have come through with flying colours,” he said. “It’s given us a better view of what our depth is like, so I’ve got a fair idea of a larger squad we can look at,” said Boucher.

“We have to get our squad back together, get all of our players fit and available to play. We always earmarked the West Indian trip as being when our full squad needs to be together. Going forward now we need to start looking at the World Cups and start building on a formula we want to play. It’s a matter of getting all the guys together and getting them used to each other and hopefully used to winning a couple of games together,” he added. (ANI)