NEWS & ANALYSIS

Was Makhaya Ntini dropped for racist reasons?

Marius Roodt |
12 August 2014
Marius Roodt takes on the conspiracy theory doing the rounds on social media

Makhaya Ntini, South African cricket, and the racist under the bed

Makhaya Ntini is one of South Africa's greatest ever sportsmen. He is the first black African to ever play Test cricket for South Africa, the only South African to take ten wickets at Lords, and 12th on the list of all-time Test wicket-takers. He also has the best match figures by a South African, taking 13 wickets for 132 versus the West Indies in 2005. However, in a recent radio interview with a veteran sports journalist, Robert Marawa, he said that he was unfairly dropped from the South African Test side at the end of 2009, in the middle of a Test series versus England. Ntini also claims that he was given R200 000 as ‘hush money' and that his contract with Cricket South Africa (CSA) was not renewed.

These claims by Ntini led to many on social media to accuse CSA of racism and that a racist cabal was in charge of the South African Test side. Neal Collins, a sports journalist whose focus is soccer but has occasionally written on cricket, also suggested on his blog that ‘racism' may have been behind Ntini's axing.

However, Ntini's claims that he was dropped unfairly do not stand up to scrutiny. In Ntini's last year playing Test cricket - 2009 - he played six matches and picked up 13 wickets at an average of 57. This was by far his worst year of Test cricket. In the eleven years that he played Test cricket he had a bowling average of below 30 for seven of those years. The only other year in which his bowling average was above 40 was in 2001.

Although Ntini had a decent year in 2008, taking 54 wickets at an average of 28.5, this had been helped by four matches against Bangladesh, one of Test cricket's weakest teams. Excluding the four matches played against Bangladesh Ntini's last two years in test cricket (in which he had played 17 matches) brought him 51 wickets at an average of 39.9. Excluding matches against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, Ntini's career bowling average was a shade over 30. It is clear that in his last two years of Test cricket Ntini was past his best. Even in Ntini's last full season of domestic first-class cricket - 2009/10 - he took only 11 wickets in seven matches for the Eastern Cape Warriors, at an average of 38.8.

Looking at the statistics it seems that his claims that he was unfairly pushed out of the side seem overblown.

Media reports from the time around Ntini's last Test match reveal that questions were being raised around Ntini's form and whether he still warranted a place in the side on merit alone. Although Collins claims that ‘there was general disbelief among the English media contingent' around Ntini's axing, media reports from the time show the opposite, in fact.

Simon Briggs, writing in The Telegraph, stated that Ntini had lost a yard of pace and had lost the qualities that had made him one of South Africa's most successful-ever bowlers. Andrew McGlashan, writing for the well-regarded cricket website, ESPNCricinfo, also noted at the time that: ‘No longer can his loss of form be classed as a blip'. The Guardian, also said that only Ntini's ‘iconic status' could prevent him from being dropped. Paul Weaver who covered the tour for the newspaper, also wrote that Ntini's pace had waned in recent years. It thus seems that most of the foreign journalists covering the series were all in agreement that Ntini was past his best.

Ntini also claims that he was after being dropped from the Test side he was not offered another contract. However, he is listed as one of South Africa's contracted players for the 2010/11 season, proving this claim false.

In addition, Ntini's final match was a T20 international versus India in early 2011, after he had announced his retirement from international cricket in late 2010. The match was explicitly touted as Ntini's farewell match. Not many cricketers are granted an international competitive match as their swansong, and Ntini was. These hardly seem the actions of a vengeful CSA against Ntini.

To Ntini's credit, he has not raised the possibility that he was dropped because of his race. However, this was not the case on the social media network, Twitter. A number of people on the social media network commented on Ntini's claims with some accusing CSA of racism.

One of those who commented on social media on Ntini's axing, was Mayihlome Tshwete, a senior civil servant in the Department of Home Affairs, going as far to explicitly state that Mickey Arthur (the coach of the South African side at the time of Ntini's axing) was racist. Tshwete tweeted:

And

Others piled in:

Collins also tweeted a link to his blog about the Ntini story, asking melodramatically if ‘RACISM' had ended Ntini's career.

This saga raises a number of issues, not just around cricket but around race relations in this country, as well as the standard of journalism in South Africa. Collins simply reported on Ntini's statements with no interrogation of whether these had any merit. A few hours looking at Ntini's statistics over the last few years of his Test career would have shown that his form had dropped away, quite dramatically, and CSA was correct to drop him. In the quest for hits on his blog Collins tried to turn what was a molehill into a mountain, or at least a large koppie.

The reaction on social media also showed that people are far too quick to look for a racial bogeyman, when none exists. There was no racial conspiracy behind Ntini's dropping, and the statistics show that.

Further evidence of the shoddy quality of South African journalism and glee with which people latch onto anything that can be construed as racist was the brouhaha which emerged around the claims of Siphe Mzaidume, which were widely reported on earlier this year. Mzaidume, a journeyman cricketer, claimed that the sport in South Africa was racist and he had been forced to leave the country and try to qualify to play cricket for England to fulfil his cricketing dreams.

Parallels were drawn between him and Kevin Pietersen, with Mzaidume claiming to be a close personal friend of Pietersen's. Pietersen left South Africa as a 20-year-old and found success playing for the English Test side. However, it soon turned out that Mzaidume was a fantasist and was, at best, an above-average club cricketer. Kevin Pietersen also said that he had never heard of Mzaidume.

Despite his lack of cricketing pedigree Mzaidume gained wide coverage in the local media, with only Antoinette Muller of the Daily Maverick and ENCA questioning and investigating his claims. In the quest for a juicy story basic journalistic principles were ignored by many writers and reporters in South Africa, with Mzaidume's bizarre claims reported as fact.

Nevertheless, the fact that only five black African players have turned out in Test matches for the Proteas (with only Ntini being a regular) is ridiculous. In addition, the way Thami Tsolekile was treated was scandalous. The wicketkeeper, who played three Test matches for South Africa in 2004 was contracted for the 2012-13 season, and identified as the successor to Mark Boucher behind the stumps. However, following Boucher's career-ending eye injury in 2012 AB de Villiers was preferred behind the stumps (with Quinton de Kock now the incumbent).

Tsolekile subsequently lost his contract for the 2014-15 season, and also did not play for South Africa in a competitive match once in his time as a contracted player. As a contracted player, he should have been given some games to prove his worth. The fact that he did not play one match for South Africa while contracted shows muddled thinking on the part of the selectors, or reflects political pressure for the need to have a black African in the national side.

Despite the way Tsolekile was treated and accusations that CSA is racist and anti-transformation, the fact is that the development efforts of the past are starting to bear fruit. Aaron Phangiso and Mthokozisi Shezi are in the squad which has been selected for the upcoming one-day international series against Zimbabwe. In addition, in the current South Africa ‘A' side (effectively the Test second XI) that is on tour in Australia, five of the fifteen players in the squad are black Africans. In fact, only six of the squad members are white.

Furthermore, for the first time CSA has introduced special ‘high-performance' contracts for players on the fringes of the national side. Of the 12 players given these special contracts six are black Africans, and four are white. CSA is clearly trying its hardest to prepare black Africans for Test cricket, and ensure that the next Makhaya Ntini arrives sooner rather than later. The day is not long off when the national side will have five or six black Africans in it, all selected on merit.

What the reaction to Ntini has shown is that South Africans are far too quick blame a racial bogeyman. One cannot deny that racism is still an issue in South Africa. The recent ‘black face' controversy at the University of Pretoria shows that white South Africans still have a long way to go in understanding the damage that apartheid did, and that racial attitudes are still far too common. Nevertheless, not every incident can be construed as racist, and Ntini's dropping certainly wasn't.

Assuming every incident where a black person is overlooked for a job and faces some other kind of setback (such as Ntini's dropping) has a racial element is not only damaging to race relations and social cohesion in general, but detracts from the many incidents where race is indeed a factor.

South Africa must not forget its past but must also look ahead. Racism is an issue in this country and will remain so for some time to come, but we need to stop blaming it for all our country's problems.

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