Ntini opens up on loneliness with the Proteas
As cricketers of colour around South Africa open up about their past experiences on and off the field, South Africa’s most famous black cricketer Makhaya Ntini says he never felt that he was part of the side despite his outstanding contribution to the Proteas.
Speaking to SABC’s Vaylen Kirtley, Ntini opened up about his experiences within the national structures during a career that spanned eleven years, with 662 wickets across all three formats of the game and over 280 international matches.
“Being lonely is not having someone come knocking on your door and say let's go for dinner,” Ntini said. “That's loneliness on its own. You'll watch friends calling each other, making plans right in front of you, and then you'll be skipped.
“They will go along by themselves. They will have dinner, lunch and breakfast at the same time. If I was the first one in the breakfast room, the next guy will never come sit next to me."
Ntini became synonymous with running to and from the hotel before and after a day’s play. The perceived belief was that he was doing it as a warm-up or warm-down exercise or training for those days where he was sitting in the changeroom watching the team bat, however the reason was far more personal.
“I would go to the bus driver early and give him my bag and I would say I would meet you at the ground and then I would put on my running shoes and run to the ground.”
“In the same way I would do that at the end of the day’s play.”
“People never understood why I would do that and I would never say that I was doing it to avoid A, B, C D.”
“It became the best thing ever throughout my career because I was getting away from that loneliness,” he added candidly.
When Lungi Ngidi made his statement about the Black Lives Matter movement last week, many former Proteas and professional cricketers began speaking out about institutional racism in cricket in South Africa. Ntini believes that this has to be spoken about and doing it now will help in changing the future.
“This is the right moment and the right time because we can sit down with our kids and a reach out to them about our experiences.
“We don’t have to wait until we are 65 and explain to our grandkids what is going on and what happened to us.”
Playing in a side that would appreciate your contributions through both the good times and the hard times is something that Ntini wished had happened during his time with the Proteas.
“Taking wickets for South Africa is the reward of the pain that you have gone through.
“Being lonely is not having someone come knocking on your door and say let's go for dinner,” Ntini said. “That's loneliness on its own. You'll watch friends calling each other, making plans right in front of you, and then you'll be skipped.
“They will go along by themselves. They will have dinner, lunch and breakfast at the same time. If I was the first one in the breakfast room, the next guy will never come sit next to me."
Ntini became synonymous with running to and from the hotel before and after a day’s play. The perceived belief was that he was doing it as a warm-up or warm-down exercise or training for those days where he was sitting in the changeroom watching the team bat, however the reason was far more personal.
“I would go to the bus driver early and give him my bag and I would say I would meet you at the ground and then I would put on my running shoes and run to the ground.”
“In the same way I would do that at the end of the day’s play.”
“People never understood why I would do that and I would never say that I was doing it to avoid A, B, C D.”
“It became the best thing ever throughout my career because I was getting away from that loneliness,” he added candidly.
When Lungi Ngidi made his statement about the Black Lives Matter movement last week, many former Proteas and professional cricketers began speaking out about institutional racism in cricket in South Africa. Ntini believes that this has to be spoken about and doing it now will help in changing the future.
“This is the right moment and the right time because we can sit down with our kids and a reach out to them about our experiences.
“We don’t have to wait until we are 65 and explain to our grandkids what is going on and what happened to us.”
Playing in a side that would appreciate your contributions through both the good times and the hard times is something that Ntini wished had happened during his time with the Proteas.
“Taking wickets for South Africa is the reward of the pain that you have gone through.
“I wished that everyone would support not only when I was doing well for the team and we were celebrating but also when the team was losing,” he added.
