'Boucher and Ramprakash reflected their team's image'

The Old Batsman, in his blog, compares the careers of Mark Boucher and Mark Ramprakash, both of whom have retired, and explores the essence of their impressions on international cricket. The careers of both were symbolic of the images of their respective squads, the blog says.

Mark Boucher will settle in the memory like so many fulfilled cricketers before him. Time came for him, as it does for them all. Mark Ramprakash, brooding prince of Surrey CCC, county cricket's Heathcliff, leaves behind something far more complex. It's been interesting to watch his followers and commentators trying to work out what it is. Regret is too obvious and too easy. If Boucher was emblematic of South Africa, then who better to be emblematic of England in the 1990s than Ramprakash, thwarted by ambition and misdirection, denied by better players, consistently out of time.