Mark Boucher appointed MI Emirates head coach

He has previously been associated with MI franchise as coach of Mumbai Indians and MI New York

MI Emirates have appointed former South Africa wicketkeeper-batter Mark Boucher as their head coach ahead of ILT20 2026-27. He takes over from former India batter Robin Singh, under whom MI Emirates won 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 has previously been associated with the MI franchise as head coach of Mumbai Indians (MI) in the IPL 2023 and 2024. Under Boucher, MI made it to the playoffs in 2023, but finished last among ten teams in 2024. He then coached MI New York in the MLC, and led them to the title in 2025.

MI Emirates were runners-up in ILT20 2025, after having won the title in the previous season.RelatedILT20 Season 5 to run from November 22 to December 20

UAE players availability uncertain ahead of ILT20 auction

Boucher also has experience of coaching in international cricket, having been the head coach of South Africa from December 2019 to November 2022. He played 147 Tests, 295 ODIs and 25 T20Is, before retiring from international cricket in 2012. 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 need to acquire four UAE players, seven players from Full Member teams, and one each from an Associate country, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

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.