मखाया व्यक्ति के साथ न्टिनी की धारणा

Makhaya Ntini's Hair is Grey

Makhaya Ntini's hair is grey. His face is lined and leathery. His muscularity is not what it used to be when he was cricket's most indefatigable fast bowler. He looks fatigued. And older than his 48 years.

But he is still Ntini. Consequently, more than 14 years after he last played for South Africa, he is still being thanked.

"You did it for black people! That's why we are here! Thank you for what you did for us! We know what you did for us! My mom watched cricket because of you! I started playing because of you! You made the legacy! Thank you! We love you!"

The words tumble torrentially, as do tears, from a woman who doesn't seem old enough to know who Ntini was and is. But she knows something more important: that Makhaya Ntini will always be Makhaya Ntini, and that the idea of him will never die.

What does the woman's gratitude and joy mean to him?

His eyes, always agleam, are suddenly soft. His voice, a ready, raucous rasp, is velvety, viscerally vulnerable.

"It means a lot," he tells Cricbuzz. "It means I opened the path."

Ntini isn't easily subdued. He has been a force of nature and a blaze of spirit for all his waking life. But the question of what it means to him to mean so much to his compatriots seems to stop him in mid-blaze, as if it has never been asked of him – which would be bizarre considering he has and will have thousands of similar experiences.

We are standing on a corner of the red carpet at CSA's annual awards at Emperors Palace, a casino and hotel complex in Johannesburg. A dazzlingly dressed fuss of Gatsbyesque proportions bustles all around us. There is nowhere to hide from the garish glare.

But Ntini is abruptly as alone as he would have been when he was herding cattle on misty hillsides in the rural Eastern Cape more than 40 years ago. When he was not yet Makhaya Ntini. Or not yet the fast bowler we know. Or not yet the Makhaya Ntini we prefer him to be. When our idea of him had not yet formed.

He is a man of flesh, blood, bone, brain, heart and soul who knows better than anyone the role he is obliged to play in the public consciousness, complete with sonic booms and the biggest personality in any room he's in.