Mark Boucher wants his mate back. His buddy is currently in Sri Lanka, but he should be back before the end of the month - or in time to help South Africa beat Australia in February and March. Boucher's mate isn't just anyone. He's Jacques Kallis, and he is England's batting consultant for their two Tests on the Asian island.
SOUTH AFRICA CRICKET
Boucher wants Kallis back in SA camp as consultant
Kallis was South Africa's batting consultant for the second half of the 2019/20 season © Getty
"A lot of the media have been saying that Jacques is my mate and this is like buddy selection," Boucher, South Africa's coach, told a press conference on Thursday. "Yes, he is a mate of mine. But Jacques is also a very good cricketer who can add a lot of knowledge. Why wouldn't we want him in our set-up?"
Kallis was South Africa's batting consultant for the second half of the 2019/20 season. In the wake of an August 31 meeting with sports minister Nathi Mthethwa, CSA had said it would not appoint white consultants unless no suitable black or brown candidates were available. But, on September 10, CSA unveiled Neil McKenzie as its batting lead. McKenzie is an employee and not a consultant, but he is as white as Kallis. To complicate things further, CSA's interim board - which replaced a chronically dysfunctional elected board on November 17 - said on January 3 it had rescinded the ban on white consultants.
So it only inflamed matters when Kallis told an online press conference,