Cricket: Deadly express bowler has humble origins

By RICHARD BOOCK in Sydney

Makhaya Ntini has travelled a fair distance from the days when he used to stand barefoot in cow dung to ward off the early morning chill.

A decade or so ago, South Africa's Xhosa fast bowler was waking up in the clothes he wore the day before, herding the cattle across the dust-blown fields, and sitting down on the ground with his six siblings to eat from one dish.

These days he lives in five-star hotels, travels business class and rates as one of South Africa's most dangerous pace bowlers - particularly when the opposition batsmen are New Zealanders.

In the eight one-day internationals he had played against New Zealand before last night, the 24-year-old right-armer was only truly collared once, and that was at Brisbane last month when Chris Cairns was in full flight.

Apart from that, Ntini's bustling pace and awkward angle has consistently caused problems for the New Zealand batsmen, and not just in terms of his economy rate.

Man of the match after stealing the show in Melbourne with a career-best five for 31, he took a total of seven for 53 off 20 overs in the two ODIs against New Zealand at Perth and Melbourne, and was doubtless looking forward to bowling on a damp Sydney pitch last night.

If there is any one reason why Ntini has troubled Stephen Fleming's side, it is possibly the combination of his line and what has become typical New Zealand batting technique.

The practice of moving back towards leg stump and playing square on the off-side might be viable on slower home pitches, but in the faster, bouncier Australian conditions it comes with a far higher risk factor.

Ntini appears to exacerbate the problem by delivering from wide on the crease and forcing the batsmen further towards leg, to the glee of the waiting slips cordon.

The Border paceman defeated both Nathan Astle and Lou Vincent in this fashion at the McG before coming back to snuff out a fairly useful lower order, dismissing Dion Nash, Adam Parore and Andre Adams.

In his early years, Ntini was one of the first up in the township of Mdingi, about 90 minutes drive inland from East London, as he was responsible for herding the family's cattle.

As hot as the township often gets, it sometimes becomes bone-jarringly cold, and the barefoot youngster learned to cope with the discomfort by keeping close to the cows and standing in their dung for some temporary relief.

There was no electricity, hence no television, and the family made wick lamps for lighting.

Hardly anyone there had heard of cricket, let alone seen it. They spoke only Xhosa - not Afrikaans or English - and the accent was on survival and family support rather than sport and entertainment.

It all changed for Ntini in the summer of 1990-91 when he passed a ground where the United Cricket Board was staging a development clinic, and after having the rudiments of a bowling action explained, produced some fairly handy deliveries.

The following year the UCB sent Ntini to the Australian Academy for tuition, then East London's Dale College offered him a scholarship and in 1995 he made his first-class debut for Border.

Test and ODI honours arrived in the 1997-98 season, and now Ntini is regarded as one of South African cricket's most valuable finds, and a sign of the potential which almost certainly lies untapped in the townships.

As a test bowler Ntini also caused his share of problems, announcing himself at Bloemfontein last summer with a career-best haul of six for 66 as South Africa went 1-nil up in the series against New Zealand.