Former South African cricketer Nicky Boje is set to participate in the 2016 Mumbai Marathon, scheduled for the 17th of January 2016, reports NDTV. The left-arm spinner, who retired from international cricket in 2006, will be a part of the Masters Champions League (MCL), to be held from January 28th to February 13th 2016 across the United Arab Emirates.
Boje, who has been coaching South African provincial side Knights, will take a break from coaching to participate in the Marathon as well as the MCL. His one-time teammate, former South Africa bowling coach Allan Donald will take over coaching duties for the Knights for the period of Boje’s absence.
The spinner is an accomplished runner; he has already completed the Berlin Marathon and has expressed his wish of running marathons with his wife Anel. He played 43 Tests for the Proteas, scoring 1312 runs at 25.23 and picked 100 wickets as well.
He also featured in 1414 ODIs making 1414 runs at 26.27 and picked up 96 wickets, with best figures of 5/21.
Boje’s career, though, had been mired with controversies as he had pulled out of a tour of India in 2000, fearing that he may be questioned about the match-fixing scandal that took place that year, which saw Hansie Cronje being suspended before his untimely and tragic death.
Boje was however cleared of all charges later after answering to the questions asked by Indian investigators. The cricketer was left out of subsequent Indian tours nevertheless and announced his retirement just before the 2006 tour to the subcontinent nation.
He feels that he still has a lot of cricket left in him and he would be given a chance to portray just that when he appears for his MCL team- Libra Legends.
The Mumbai Marathon will have six events in total, with the full marathon (42.196 km) and half marathon (21.097 km) the highlights of the event.
Apart from this, organisers have included the DHL Corporate Champions event for corporates. Companies registered for the event can field a team of 4 which should contain both men and women. The distance to be covered in the race would be 10.5 km.
The Dream Run is a 6 km run for children above 12 years of age, while the Ssenior Citizens’ Run is for people of at least 60 years of age on race day; both circuits are 4.3km long.
A special feature of the marathon is the Champions With Disability event, a 1.75 km run for differently abled people, or those who suffer from physical/locomotor disabilities, intellectual, visual or hearing impairments, and orthopedic or neurological disorders.
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