Mark Boucher suggests attaching the bails to the stumps

Former South African wicketkeeper batsman Mark Boucher is one of the best wicket-keepers the game has ever witnessed. He holds the record for the most number of dismissals to his name with a combined tally of 999 in Tests, ODIs and T20Is.

However, Boucher couldn’t take it into the 4 figures due to a tragic injury. A flying bail hit his eye and that forced him to retire from international cricket. The incident happened during a warm-up game against Somerset on the 2012 England tour.

Even after 4 years of the incident, which forced one of the great servants of the game to retire, the game’s governing body hasn’t taken any effective measure to make sure that this will never happen to any other player.

One of the points made after the injury was that, Boucher had not worn the helmet but however, that is not as effective as “helmets are designed for balls, not bails”.

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“I had not worn the helmet but even if I had, it would not have avoided the accident. Helmets are designed for balls, not bails,” a report in mid-day quoted Boucher as saying.

The former cricketer put forward his suggestion to implement the change. “My recommendation would be to somehow attach the bails to the stumps, by a light string. This way, the bails will not fly and cause damage to any player”.

The ICC had on Sunday said that wearing helmets in international cricket should not be mandatory. But if a batsman decides to wear a helmet, then it must comply with the new British Standard (BS) – BS7928:2013.

Boucher agreed with ICC’s stand saying, “I would strongly recommend everyone to wear a helmet, but making it compulsory would not be fair on players who prefer not to wear one.”

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