Mark Boucher news: Cricket South Africa withdraws misconduct charges

Less than a week before the official disciplinary hearing, Cricket South Africa (CSA) has formally withdrawn charges of misconduct against Proteas head coach Mark Boucher.

Boucher was facing three charges, including gross misconduct and racial discrimination, based primarily on his behaviour when he was the wicketkeeper for the South Africa men's national team.

However, in the lead up to the hearing, former CSA director of cricket Graeme Smith, who hired Boucher as head coach of the Proteas, was cleared of any wrongdoing charges against him by an arbitration hearing.

On top of that, key witnesses Paul Adams and Enoch Nkwe both announced they had no intentions of testifying at Boucher's disciplinary.

Adams became the focus of the charges against Boucher after the former spinner revealed a song that was about him when the pair played for the Proteas that included a racist slur.

However, Adams since went on record saying his intention was to ensure that similar racist incidents were no longer a part of South African cricket and that he did not want to single Boucher out in any way.

Nkwe was considered a key witness because he was the person overlooked by Smith in appointing Boucher as head coach of the Proteas.

Boucher also made a formal apology to Adams that was accepted, leaving CSA with virtually no case against its head coach.

"The SJN process was never only or even mainly about the conduct of individuals," CSA board chair Lawson Naidoo said.

"More fundamentally, it was about providing a platform for persons involved in cricket to share their personal experiences of racial and gender discrimination and to allow for careful consideration of the systemic measures necessary to redress these issues going forward.

"The Board will in the near future announce further systemic initiatives in this regard. The systemic learnings from the SJN process will provide valuable input into the values, behaviours, culture and strategy of Cricket in South Africa going forward and we thank all participants for their contributions in this regard."