The former South African cricket coach Mark Boucher has been appointed as MI Emirates’ head coach for the upcoming ILT20 2026 season. He’ll be taking over from Robin Singh, who led the team to the ILT20 title for the first time in the 2024 season.

The announcement comes just a day before the tournament’s fifth edition in Dubai on Wednesday.

Boucher has been associated with the franchise, serving as the head coach of Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2023 and 2024 seasons, and also worked with MI New York in Major League Cricket (MLC), guiding the team to a championship in the 2024 season.

He also worked with Proteas as the coach between December 2019 and November 2022, while he has an extensive playing career in international cricket, having played 147 Tests, 295 ODIs and 25 T20Is before retiring in 2012.

Boucher played for South Africa from 1997 to 2012, establishing himself as one of the toughest and most reliable wk-batter in cricket history.

However, his career ended abruptly during a 2012 tour match in England after he suffered eye injury from dislodged ball. Playing 467 games across formats, Mark Boucher has amassed 10,469 runs. His extensive playing career in international cricket having played 147 tests, 295 ODIs and 25 T20Is before retiring in 2012.

The ILT20 2026 auction will be held on October 01 at ICC Academy Indoors in Dubai. Nicholas Pooran, Rashid Khan and Romario Shepherd are retained players for MI Emirates while Sherfane Rutherford has been joined as pre-auction signings.

MI Emirates need to acquire four UAE players, seven players from full member teams and one each from a Associate country.

With fixtures for the season is yet to be revealed, the tournament is set to be played between November 22 and December 20.