Hostility in bowling was a term losing its name, what with the speed merchants such as Waqar, Wasim, and Donald resigning from their Reign as Top Speed Gunners, till a small boy arrived on the scene from the Border region of South Africa. Picking yourself up after falling is something associated with people with good spirit. Makhaya Ntini is one of those rare Generation X cricketers with an attitude for Life, and aggression to the max.

Enthusiasm is a word to be associated with this cricketer; in fact I haven’t seen any bowler really run back to his run up and get ready to hurl yet another great delivery at the batsman. Ntini is so full of energy that is so positive and shows very much in his bowling as he bowls those searing seamers and and I-wanna-Keep-You-Interested-Bouncers not to mention the Piercing Yorkers now and then. One might say hostility is his middle name!

Born on July 7, 1977 in a small lesser known village in South Africa, he has come up well; when he was chosen to play for South Africa in the First Test against Sri Lanka at Cape Town in 1998, he was the first black player to play for his national team. Ntini came in at a very raw stage of his life, (a cow herder) his talent was too fresh and raw for him to make a big name in the South African team. He needed to be made finer, with some adjustments in his approach to the game. Once that was sorted out, he was ready for waging battles on the cricket field.

Makhaya Ntini made his ODI debut for South Africa in Perth against New Zealand in 1998 along with Mark Boucher. He could not have hoped for a better wicket to make his debut on. With a bowling action that reminds of West Indian great, the late Malcolm Marshall, Ntini bowls at a lively pace and skids the bowl through to make it uncomfortable for any batsman who faces him. He bowled his full quota of ten overs for hostility at its best, giving just 31 runs and taking his first two ODI wickets, those of Stephen Fleming and Adam Parore.

Joy as they say sometimes does remain short-lived. After playing in a few games, suddenly his personal life interfered with his professional life – he was caught up in a rape case, and sadly that threatened to cut short his career in cricket. This saw him being dropped from the national side. However, he made a strong comeback by maintaining his innocence and was acquitted from the charges. Luckily things were settled soon and Ntini was finally going to play again in all true spirits, putting behind him those scars of the bad days.

With renewed vigour, Ntini set himself up for a long career marked regularly with the goodies of plenty of wickets and fast bowling at its best. He actually came in at a time when Donald was at his twilight. That great bowler was ending his career, and Ntini just had to take on the mantle of senior bowler along with Pollock soon. While Pollock prefers to stick to line and length and curb his speeds, Ntini is a bowler who wants to attack right from ball one! So the South African pace is pronged with the experience and the exuberance of youth.

Having a strenuous workout in the hot humid conditions of South Africa toasts the average cricketer. Makhaya Ntini is just another of those roasted and toasted. Normally bowlers produce effort balls, preferring to use that extra special extra fast bouncer or yorker with a limit. That would be more to conserve the energy and sustain them over the test match. But here is a bowler who loves bowling, and loves bowling fast, testing the batsman with every delivery, not wasting any single effort. Ntini’s action is side on and that helps him generate that super fast in-swingers, being more vicious than one would feel. Those in-swingers are very sharp indeed, and with some help from the pitch, this 27 year old is a Devil Incarnate with the ball!

That was really what was echoed by the New Zealanders at Bloemfontein in the First Test in 2000. Allan Donald brought the South Africans on their feet with his 300th wicket in this test, but Ntini, barely a handful of test caps under him, showed great commitment to the team by bowling hostile spells of bowling on a totally flat wicket; sending down nearly 32 overs, he returned with fine figures of 6-66! South Africa won that test, and that’s not all that they won; they had also won a new Hero for themselves! A bowler who could win matches for them. He has been taking wickets regularly for South Africa and has been a consistent performer ever since his comeback to International cricket. Nobody will forget his debut World Cup performances for South Africa in 2003 at home. Ntini captured as many as 10 wickets in this edition even as South Africa crumbled really to nowhere.

With the absence of the senior bowlers like Allan Donald, Ntini has really smoothly moved in with the responsibility of taking the new ball for South Africa. He has never been disappointing and is a 100% man for the team every time. Again, a fine example was when South Africa toured England in 2003 – in the Lord’s test, he became the first Black cricketer from South Africa to get 10 wickets in a match; something laudable by any means. That game was better known for the present skipper’s double ton, that took the game away from England, but Ntini was at his prime, and no less spectacular.
 

Here’s wishing from all of us at Cricketfundas.com that Ntini skyrocket South Africa and pull them back to winning ways and bring them to that position that they have always enjoyed in this game – The Masters of the Game!