Boucher questions Ganguly exclusion

On February 26, 2000, Mark Boucher, South Africa's wicketkeeper, walked out to bat at the Wankhede Stadium with the first Test against India in a fine balance. The spinners were zipping it off a wearing pitch and South Africa, requiring 35 runs with four in hand, needed an inspired knock. Boucher swept almost everything thrown at him and snatched the match away with daring 27 not out. Nearly six years on, and he was back to the same venue, just that this time he was addressing a pre-match press conference. His approach, though, hadn't changed one bit as he swatted question after question with surprising confidence, and more importantly tons of cheek.

The controversy surrounding the pitch at Kolkata was dismissed, the Sourav Ganguly issue was rekindled with a surprising perspective and the talk of pressure was hit straight back. "Reading the newspapers after the last game, there were comparisons to Kingsmead in Durban," he said. "Whoever's been to Kingsmead and compared the Eden Gardens wicket to that, doesn't really know what they are talking about. Especially from a keepers' point of view, I took most of the balls below my knees; at Kingsmead I take it over my head."

Boucher said that his team-mates were pleasantly surprised at the support they got at Kolkata, before going on to launch the most audacious stroke of all: "The support that we got at Eden Gardens in unbelievable," he said. "We do understand that it's because of the whole Sourav Ganguly issue. A couple of our players are wondering why he isn't in the side and it's a bit strange to us. We preferred bowling to the new batsmen than bowling to Ganguly."

He continued so quickly that it took some time for the mild chuckles to die down among the press. "We understand the pressure the Indian players are at the moment. It will be interesting to see how the youngsters come out and play. I don't think the youngsters have been under such pressure in a home series, being 2-1 down. It's a different story walking out to bat playing shots from the first ball, getting out and paying the consequences. From our side, not really a pressure situation but more eagerness to walk away with the series win."

Having set the tone, Boucher indulged in a bit more banter, something that appeared to be entirely psychological warfare. "I think controversy in the Indian team will be an advantage for us. Whenever a side's losing there will be cracks that will open up and the big crack of Sourav Ganguly has opened up in the last few weeks. I think it didn't really open up when you played Sri Lanka because not many cracks open up when a side is winning. We've put India under pressure, the Sourav Ganguly issue has reared its head and there are a couple of guys in their side who are skeptical about what's actually going on. Trust me, we will try and use it to our advantage."

And did they have any plans for Sachin Tendulkar, playing on his home ground? Pat came the reply: "We got no particular plans for Tendulkar," he said, "Polly [Shaun Pollock] has sorted his plans out to him, he's got him three times and it will be nice if he can get him the fourth time as well. We understand that Tendulkar is a fabulous player but hopefully his big innings is not against us. Hopefully he has a bad series against us with us keeping him down. It's going to be difficult for us because he'll be in front of his home crowd, but he'll also be under pressure because he hasn't scored much in this series. We'll try and put him under more pressure."

Boucher made sure the administrators had their share of things to think about as well. "We've been very surprised with the dew factor," he continued. "We knew it was going to dew, but we didn't know the wickets are going to change that much. Especially the second game, the wicket was very slow upfront and then greased up quite a bit which made it difficult for bowling in the second innings. Maybe playing day-night games at this time of the year isn't the answer. I know it gets the crowds in but at the end of the day you need an even contest."

And he had absolutely no doubt which team had called the shots in this series, saying that South Africa had been the better team in all three departments. All through, there was a touch of insouciance, a slightly overly confident air and an attempt to throw in the gauntlet. The answers will probably resound louder if Boucher and his team-mates manage to walk the talk and return home with their first ODI series-triumph in India.