It is 9 July 2012. In an unimportant warm-up contest against Somerset, yet important in that it would provide invaluable game-time in preparation for a gruelling tour, South-Africa would witness fate mingle with sadness. It would be unfortunate that Mark Boucher was forced to step away from the game in bizarre circumstances, something that was not stoppable. Who would have thought that a low-key warm-up match would signal the end, a slow painful extinction for a tireless work-horse? Who would have knew that fate would befall him; that he would be trapped in a darkening world?
Boucher had glasses on, taking them off and signalling to the change-room that he wanted a helmet. Imran Tahir, who had come on to bowl, beat a tail-ender’s defence. The ball clattered into the stumps, scraped a bail, with it shooting up and making contact with his left eye.
He immediately fell to the ground and clutched his eye, feeling sharp pain. When he looked into his glove and saw that there was not any blood, he could not understand what was wrong and how he could feel such pain if there was not any signs of clots of blood.
By the reactions of his team-mates they understood there was something wrong, but they did not know how serious it was at first. “Jeez, Bouch, I know it’s a warm-up game and you want to get off the field, but get up now; it’s been long enough”, close friend Jacques Kallis thought.
Boucher felt weak and could not see clearly; everything was blurred and he was panicking. “Brandon (Jackson) ran onto the field and, putting my arm around his shoulder, starting helping me off”, Boucher wrote in his autobiography. “I was walking fine although I was beginning to shut down mentally. The shock was setting in. Suddenly it was like my legs had been cut off and I’d been shot by a sniper at the same time. I could feel nothing below my waist, let alone my feet. I dropped to the ground like a brick”.
It must have been a testing period, a shock that came on an unexpected note. It was painful, unbearable and even though he had the intention to retire after the series, to become a part of a side that would claim the top spot on the ICC test rankings, and collect the maze, would have been special. Instead of sharing the dressing-room with his team-mates, he had to endure operations and treatment in hospital.
Everything was over; he had no chance of a comeback, even though the full physical extent of the injury was not yet known, for in the alarm and sympathy in which the medical experts spoke gave a hint. His dream was shattered; there was not even an outside chance of ending his international career the way and how he wanted to.
The doctor, Jonathan Rossiter said to him: “You must understand it is very serious. I have to be honest with you … I don’t think you are ever going to see out of the eye again”.
“The normal elevation from the eyelid from the eye was gone”, Rossiter said. “He had evidently lost a significant amount of the eye contents. After preparation, I carefully inspected the extent of the injury. It was much worse than I feared. Clearly the entire iris and lens were absent. Much of the anterior segment was filled with haemorrhage. There was a significant corneal/scleral rupture, extending near half of the length of the eye on the medial side (the side closest to the nose). The rupture extended backwards, and I had to disinsert the medial rectus eye muscle in order to see the full extent of the rupture. There was prolapse of the vitreous gel through the rupture and, as a result, I suspected that the retina, which was not visible, must have been damaged. I would say that this was the worst ocular trauma case that I have had to deal with”.
When the severity of the injury was found out, although everybody had known that his life had changed, there was no other choice for him to step away from the game, for his own good. It is always difficult but he knew deep down in his heart that he could not have made a comeback, providing an assault that would be competitive, although he would have liked to believe that he could have made a comeback. The medical experts only had to confirm the reality, the bitter truth, shoving away the unrealistic dreaming, to the dismay of Boucher, who had to accept his fate that he would have to come to terms with.
It was frustrating, as he had a long road to recovery, and he requires more rest and sleep. You have to have immense determination to overcome the odds, making life more complicated than what it is needed to be.
To have only one good eye restricts the value you have and there are some things that are difficult, because of it and you attract more unwanted attention. People stare at you in a different way than they had before for the sake of it and not that you are a changed person, but that you look and act different.
It was needed for a miracle that he would regain sight, but he took upon it with a determined approach that he was to overcome the odds and see again. He was obviously done with his dream. After undergoing an emergency operation to stitch him up, it was decided that he would be flown in to Cape Town, so that he would be in the safe hands of his family; they would care for him and he would require further treatment in his quest for sight.
With there no doubt that he would struggle to regain vision, let alone play cricket, he thought about what occupation he would like to have. Boucher was patient, keeping an eye open for opportunities for the taking, and wanting to choose something that he loved.
He had always had a passion for animals, so he gladly took upon the opportunity to join an anti-poaching trip to the lower Sabie River. Having enjoyed the trip, he talked to Frik Rossouw, a man involved in anti-poaching operations, and they came to an agreement that Boucher would become involved in saving and stopping poachers from killing rhinos for South-African Breweries (SAB). His dream was come to a sudden end, but with a failure there comes an opportunity, with the good comes the bad. After meetings over whether he could get involved in making a difference in Rhinos life, he was given the green light and able to do what he wanted.
“It’s an opportunity for people to experience a rhino up close: to touch and feel the animal, and to be involved with the process of checking its temperature while the animal is tranquillised, to water it and stop the bleeding from the notch in the ear”, Boucher explains. “As well as notching the ear, we drill a hole in the horn and implant a transmitter”.
It was a sickening injury, a freak accident that he had suffered and he could have given up hope. But his feisty and aggressive character, and in your face attitude helped him recover, for one who had a weaker mind and a weaker body would not have made it. There was hope that he would be able to save the eye cosmetically, but less so that he would have been able to regain sight. However he has regained 50 percent of his sight, a huge improvement, but it is in the past and his duty for the present is to make the environment a better place to live in.
And to stop poachers from doing their wrongly deeds, for if they carry on at the alarming rate at which they are driving rhinos into extinction, there is quickly going to be mourning over the loss of one of nature’s most powerful and beautiful beasts, yet there is a feeling that at times they are kindly-hearted, wanting to smile.