Mark Boucher was a proud man as the South African team coached by him inflicted a 3-0 ODI series whitewash over India after winning the Test series 2-1.
The retirement of star players in addition to administrative crisis and racism allegations impacted South African cricket over the past 24 months. However, the dominating result against India will certainly give belief to the current crop of players.
"We spoke about our journey and not worrying about the series," Boucher said at an online media interaction after South Africa’s four-run victory in the third ODI.
"We wanted to win 3-0. We've been through the hard times and only once you've been through the hard times do you really appreciate the good ones.
"We appreciate this, but our feet are firmly planted on the ground. This is just a nice chapter in our continued journey. We have a captain in Tembs (Bavuma) that really is demanding on results and that's good," he added.
Boucher, who himself faces charges of racism allegations, refused to respond to a question on the lows during his stint as coach.
"I think you will appreciate that I can't answer that," Boucher said but chose to speak about the team's progress.
“The progression has been great. I think we turned the corner a while ago from a team perspective but obviously we needed the results to back it up.”
"We tried a few things in Covid times. We had to get a deeper squad. We gave a lot of opportunities to a lot of players and I think we are starting to reap the rewards now," he added.
According to Mark Boucher, the South African team is in good spirits.
“If you walk into that change room now the guys are obviously happy that they've won the series but their feet are on the ground.”
Boucher said it was great to see wicketkeeper-batter Quinton De Kock back in the team after his shocking decision to retire from Test cricket last month.
"It was great to see him come out and play the way that we all know Quinny can play; the way that he has been when he's at his best. He's got that sort of freedom about his game.
"You can't have all six of your batters play like that, but you can certainly have one or two. On their day, if they score a hundred, more often than not they're going to win you a game.
"It's great to see 'Quinny' back and smiling again. He's got a daughter now, who he's probably looking forward to getting back to. That puts life into perspective, as a lot of people who are dads will know," Boucher said of De Kock, who slammed a match-winning ton in the third ODI.
(With PTI inputs)
