This one goes out to all the Mark Boucher critics out there...

For too long I've listened to you whine on and on about the steely stalwart's lack of consistent contribution to the South African unit.

Friday at the Wanderers saw Boucher pull his team from the depths of depression for the umpteenth time in his underrated career, as the East London-born star orchestrated yet another one of those typically cameo knocks that has seen him bring a humbled smile to the Proteas fans who are often far too quick to condemn him when times are lean.

Unlike fellow big-gun wicketkeeper-batsmen Mahendra Dhoni, Kumar Sangakkara and Brendon McCullum - who India, Sri Lanka and New Zealand respectively rely on heavily for large contributions with the bat - Boucher's primary job with the willow is not to score half-tons and bigger time and time again.

Forget the fact that at seven or eight in the order he is hardly availed the opportunity to put in lengthy stints at the crease, 80s and centuries are simply not his modus operandi. Blitzkrieg, under-pressure 30s and 40s - in limited-overs clashes - and dogged, strike-farming 50s - in five-dayers - are what's required from the man in question, and although he does falter in his delivery at times (as do many of international cricket's top dogs), the negative insistence that he is 'past his sell-by date', 'over the hill' or 'ready for retirement' are preposterous.

His selection is, obviously, for his primary role behind the stumps, but down the order Boucher is as good as one gets in terms of tireless determination, and it's for that reality alone he deserves to be saved the fruitless 'insight' of armchair critics countrywide.

It was Albie Morkel that grabbed the headlines on Friday and Herschelle Gibbs that received the plaudits in the famous '438' affair in March 2006 - just two examples of many in which Boucher's bit part played as big a role in a South African victory as the subsequent Man Of The Match - and he is bound to do so again, very soon.

"Boucher has done it many times before," Johan Botha enthused in the wake of his team's win in the first Twenty20 International. "He showed us again that he is probably our best finisher."

It's the stand-in skipper's sentiment that heralds Boucher as an absolute necessity in the Saffer ranks, and it's such accolade that demands a return of respect for the hardy veteran.