The Makhaya Ntini appreciation thread

[Langeveldt]

but all this stuff about him being a great man is a little funny to me. He may be, but he is also a convicted rapist with the verdict overturned with a shadowy appeal. He was found guilty originally.

He could be a really nice guy but I dont know him personally and I cant in good conscience praise the character of a stranger with such a chequered past.

lol, WTF? So he had his verdict overturned and he's still a guilty man?

 

[Barney Rubble]

Top bowler, top bloke. Definitely one of the nicer cricketers I've met, and clearly an outstanding fast bowler.

*appreciates*

 

[marc71178]

Top effort, but wtf is with that T-Shirt?!

 

[Johnners]

Fantastic stuff by the big man, a well deserved acheivement

 

[Beleg]

Congragulations to him on 300 wickets. I like Pollock and Nel more personally, but I don't mind watching him bowl.

 

[Poker Boy]

Congratulations Makhaya! The one thing that stands out about him is his fitness- in an era when some fast bowlers can't stay fit for three Tests running he just keeps running in giving 100 per cent for his country at all times and never moaning (unlike S Harmison). A credit to his country! PS - I LOVE that band at PE! Great change from the Barmy Army!

 

[aussie]

since he took that 10 for @ lords in 2003 he has gotten better & better & that period was also coincedentally the same time when Pollock was beginning to declined as SA's strike bowler.

 

[aussie]

The best fast bowler in the world right now, for mine. And if anyone wants to argue with that, be my guest. But you'll have a heck of a hard time doing so with any firm grounding. Statistically only McGrath has averaged less than Ntini since 2005 and no one has taken more wickets per match. He's taken 100 wickets in his last 19 matches! Incredible in this day and age. He's also taken 10 5-fors and 3 10-fors in his last 23 games. That's blinding.

Putting stats aside, Ntini has just been consistently superb for South Africa. In a bowling attack with a wandering Pollock, a sometime-ish Nel and an even more sometime-ish Steyn, Ntini has been the rock. A fine bowler and with his fitness levels at the age of 29, who knows where he'll end up.

All true, but i'd still say Akhtar is a whisker ahead of him. Ntini hardly misses a game through injury thus he would have a statistical edge over Akhtar if you want to judge their performances over the past few years. But Akhtar vs Ntini in full blast i'll give it to the Rawalpindi express..

 

[Goughy]

lol, WTF? So he had his verdict overturned and he's still a guilty man?

I said nothing of the sort. I would never say he is guilty, what I am saying is that all this talk from guys saying he is a great guy when they dont know him (as I dont) seems strange.

I dont want this to detract from the fact that he is a quality bowler and has come a long way to become one of the worlds elite.

 

[Langeveldt]

I said nothing of the sort. I would never say he is guilty, what I am saying is that all this talk from guys saying he is a great guy when they dont know him (as I dont) seems strange.

Hmm, fair enough, but I think you can give most people as obviously liked and happy as him the benifit of the doubt, surely?

 

[shortpitched713]

Its been insinuated that hes a rapist Langs, by none other than Goughy. He can't possibly be a good man.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Hmm, fair enough, but I think you can give most people as obviously liked and happy as him the benifit of the doubt, surely?

Well Kev explained it to me, and basically said that he didn't really know whether he did it or not, but that many people could seem to be nice on the outside, but nobody would know what they were really like. He seems a great bloke on the outside, and that's all I can say.

 

[Richard]

Donald, Pollock and Ntini? Wow.

Surely almost as good as than Marshall, Holding, Garner.

 

[Richard]

Top effort, but wtf is with that T-Shirt?!

Same as McGrath's boots?

 

[silentstriker]

Surely even better than Marshall, Holding, Garner.

No.

 

[Richard]

since he took that 10 for @ lords in 2003 he has gotten better & better & that period was also coincedentally the same time when Pollock was beginning to declined as SA's strike bowler.

I don't quite think so...

For a long, long time he blew hot and cold, having as many if not more ineffective days as effective. He's suffered more, in my view, than anyone from the inexplicable lack of third-man we see most of the time today. It's often given the impression that he's more wayward than he is. More often than not, he's always been on the money, though he's also had times when things have gone badly wrong.

Of late, however, he's been peerless. And has beyond all question been the best seamer of the last 12 months.

 

[Richard]

No.

I don't know how you can be so certain. For a brief period, ie 1995\96-1998\99, Donald and Pollock were as deadly an opening pair as you could really wish for. Just imagine how good an attack theirs would've been if they'd been backed by an Ntini and Nel instead of decent-all-rounder types like Kallis, Klusener and McMillan and in-and-outers like Schultz.

Sure, Marshall-Holding-Garner was an incredibly good attack, but I think the fact that one did happen and the other didn't causes something of a bias towards the known-quantity.

 

[silentstriker]

I don't know how you can be so certain. For a brief period, ie 1995\96-1998\99, Donald and Pollock were as deadly an opening pair as you could really wish for. Just imagine how good an attack theirs would've been if they'd been backed by an Ntini and Nel instead of decent-all-rounder types like Kallis, Klusener and McMillan and in-and-outers like Schultz.

Sure, Marshall-Holding-Garner was an incredibly good attack, but I think the fact that one did happen and the other didn't causes something of a bias towards the known-quantity.

Marshall is arguably the #1 pace bowler of the modern era. Holding and Garner would both be in the top 15.

Donald would be in the top 15, and Pollock might be on the edge, but that's it.

 

[Richard]

Marshall is certainly the best seamer of the modern era IMO, but Donald is not too far behind either - maybe 5th, 6th-ish.

And you could make a case for Pollock being right up there, too.

Who knows how good Ntini might have been playing all the time with those 2? Maybe better, maybe worse, we'll never know.

Equally, we'll never know how bad\even-better Marshall might've been had he not played most of his career with Holding, Garner, Walsh, Patterson, Benjamin, Gray, Bishop and Ambrose, and Holding and Garner with Roberts, Daniel, Croft, Marshall and Patterson.

Maybe "surely almost as good as ..." would've been a better thing to say, though...

 

[silentstriker]

Marshall is certainly the best seamer of the modern era IMO, but Donald is not too far behind either - maybe 5th, 6th-ish.

If you go post WWII, I'd say (not in particular order):

McGrath, Marshall, Ambrose, Hadlee, Trueman, Imran, Lillee, Donald, Wasim, Holding, Waqar, Garner, Walsh, Davidson, Miller,Lindwall, Pollock.

Ntini wouldn't be in the top twenty.