Mark Boucher to continue as South Africa's head coach till the 2023 WC

Former South African wicketkeeper-batter Mark Boucher will continue as head coach of his country's men's cricket team till the end of the 2023 World Cup, Cricket South Africa confirmed in a statement on Sunday.

The statement comes a fortnight after Boucher was acquitted of three charges related to racism. 

The charges had stemmed from the Social Justice & Nation Building Hearing (SJN) before former left-arm spinner Paul Adams accused the former stumper of addressing him with a racial slur 'brown sh*t".

Apart from this, a probe was ordered after Boucher's assistant coach Enoch Nkwe resigned from his post.

However, both Adams and Nkwe refused to testify their claims in court, and according to CSA, this played a major role in Boucher getting acquitted.

In a statement, Cricket South Africa's chair Lawson Naidoo expressed his regret at the fact that Boucher had to live under the shadow of racism claims for a better part of his tenure till now.

However, Naidoo has now urged the South African public to get behind their head coach, adding that CSA is looking forward to continuing working with the former cricketer.

"We look forward to continuing to work with Mark into the future and we hope all South Africans can come together as one to get behind our team, which we know has the ability to reach the very pinnacle of achievement across all formats," said Naidoo.

Here's what CSA said in a detailed statement

• The charges against Boucher were unreservedly withdrawn, the effect of which is that Boucher has been cleared of the charges against him.

• CSA regrets that Boucher had the cloud of the charges hanging over his head but is pleased that the matter is now resolved.

• Boucher has the support of CSA, and CSA is confident that the Proteas team will continue to make strides towards building a culture of mutual respect and inclusivity.

• Boucher has confirmed to CSA to fulfil the remainder of his contract, which ends after the 2023 World Cup.

• CSA looks forward to Boucher guiding the Proteas team to their first World Test Championship final in June 2023.

Boucher has done a more than decent job since taking over as head coach of the Proteas men's team in 2019.

Despite the team being in a transition state and the board in a complete financial mess, the partnership of Boucher and former director Graeme Smith proved to be a decent one for the former powerhouse.

South Africa did well in the T20 WC last year as they came within touching distance of making it to the semi-finals.

They then had a memorable Test summer where the Dean Elgar-led unit beat India 2-1 at home before drawing 1-1 in New Zealand.

South Africa has some challenging assignments coming up in the next 12-15 months. Apart from the two World Cups, a potential World Test Championship final is up for grabs.

But, for that, they have to overcome a couple of tough tours of England and Australia this year.