Proteas' Faith In Ngidi Has Provided Rewards

Hilton College, in the Natal Midlands close to Pietermaritzburg, was founded in 1872 and moulded in the fashion of the classical English public school, specifically Rugby College, the alma mater of its first headmaster. It has a rich and proud sporting history having produced a clutch of Springbok rugby players including recent captains Bob Skinstad and Gary Teichmann.

 

- Neil Manthorp

Its cricketing pedigree isn’t so strong although Mike Procter will remain its most famous product for some time to come. Depending on how well the career of Lungisani Ngidi progresses over the next decade or so.

The 21-year-old fast bowler burst onto the international scene in spectacular fashion this week with a man-of-the-match winning performance of 6-39 to sink India by 135 runs in the second Test in Centurion and help South Africa to an unassailable 2-0 lead with the final Test starting at the Wanderers next Wednesday.

Ngidi, whose father is a buildings caretaker and mother a domestic worker, was awarded a scholarship to Hilton but only started playing seriously at the age of 15 when he immediately caught the attention of 1st XI coach Neil Johnson, the former Zimbabwe, Hampshire and Leicestershire all-rounder who alerted the Titans to his potential.

He was reluctant to move to Pretoria after school having rarely travelled outside his native Durban and was only persuaded with the promise of a place at Tuks University where he enrolled in a Bachelor of Social Sciences degree in Industrial Sociology: “I wanted to further my education, not really knowing whether I could make a career in cricket,” he explained. “But they gave me the chance to do both.”