During the lunch break break in the South Africa v New Zealand test Sky showed a recorded interview of Mahkaya Ntini with Ian Bishop. (Incidentally. Mahkaya called him Mr. Bishop throughtout the interview.) Here are some of the points:
- he doesn’t get the chance to contribute to the development programmes from which he emerged – the season finishes at Christmas. He sends boots, shoes, and other kit to help out
- his fitness developed in the African bush – chasing calves, running alongside horses and jumping on them
- doesn’t bother about diet, such as advice to eat chicken and steak – he eats African food
- he took a while to reach 50 wickets because he was third seamer, under the shadow of Alan Donald. Once Donald retired he saw his chance
- sees his biggest strength as being his head – a thinking bowler
- feels he is mentally tough – even if he gets hit for three fours he comes back
- biggest influence in his early years was Richard Pybus – gave him his chest-on action, modelled on Malcolm Marshall. This was in his late teens and Ntini thinks this chest-on action is why he has never suffered lower-back problems
- doesn’t want to be a coach or commentator when he retires – he’s already started a business fixing trailers
He came across as a real feet on the ground character. He’s clearly had to work hard to get to this number two position in the ICC rankings, but he didn’t make a big deal of it, and came across as a very modest guy.
6 May 2006
