Mark Boucher appointed MI Emirates head coach

MI Emirates have appointed former South Africa wicketkeeper-batter Mark Boucher as their head coach ahead of ILT20 2026-27. He succeeds Robin Singh, a former India all-rounder who helped MI Emirates win the ILT20 title in 2024.

Boucher joins the side just a day before the auction for the fifth edition of the tournament, which takes place in Dubai on Wednesday.

He served as the head coach of Mumbai Indians (MI) in the 2023 and 2024 editions of the Indian Premier League. MI reached the playoffs in 2023 under Boucher, but finished last out of ten teams in 2024. After that, he worked as a coach for MI New York in the MLC, leading them to the title in 2025.

After winning ILT20 2025 the previous year, MI Emirates finished in second place.

Additionally, Boucher has international cricket coaching experience, having served as South Africa's head coach from December 2019 to November 2022. Before retiring from international cricket in 2012, he participated in 147 Test matches, 295 ODI matches, and 25 T20I matches. In franchise cricket, Boucher represented two IPL franchises across four seasons, and also played three seasons of the Champions League.

The ILT20 2026-27 takes place from November 22 to December 20, with MI Emirates having a purse of $1,390,000 ahead of the auction. They must acquire four players from the United Arab Emirates, seven players from Full Member teams, and Kuwaiti and Saudi Arabian players from Associate nations.

The UAE players' availability, though, remains uncertain due to the ODI World Cup qualifiers, for which UAE is still in contention, and which will run parallelly with the next season of the ILT20.