How Ngidi became South Africa’s star
DURBAN: South Africa paceman Lungi Ngidi’s fairytale rise to stardom shows what some luck and a helping hand can do to talented people living in the margins.
With a huge gulf in the standards of government and private schools, a stint in the top private schools can be a ticket to success. South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis mentioned this while talking about the 21-year-old after his impressive Test debut against India.
Around 30 km from Durban is Kloof, a locality where Ngidi spent his formative years as his parents worked in the Kloof Junior Primary School, a predominantly white school.his parents still work there, father Jerome has risen from a pool cleaner to managing maintenance.
The trip to the Johannesburg Test on invitation by Cricket South Africa, which put them up in a five-star hotel, exposed the shy couple to a new life with cameras constantly trained on them.
FULL SCHOLARSHIP
Back in the school, they are at home in their uniform. Ngidi’s mother Bongi holds a set of towels to be given for washing. “Life was harsh. We had to pay for the education of our four sons. This kid (Lungi) took some burden off us, getting bursaries (100% scholarships),” says Jerome.
Bongi adds, “Both of us had to work weekends for extra money. I’d work at houses during holidays to make ends meet.”
Lungi was too good. “His hero was Makhaya Ntini. He used to say he wants to bowl like Ntini,” recalls his dad.
The bursar at the Kloof Junior Primary, Jane Wilks, says, “He had just joined the pre-primary school close to this place as a tiny kid. He knew only Zulu, no English. But he picked up English in 2-3 weeks at the school and was speaking fluently. I was very surprised.” Wilks offered him full scholarship. Children pay 20,000 rand (approx ~1.07 lakh) a year here. It helped his parents worked in the school. Soon Wilks pushed him into the Kloof Senior Primary School with another bursary.
Education at Kloof Senior Primary, run by the government like the Junior Primary, was beyond the reach of Ngidi’s parents. However, nothing was as expensive as Highbury Preparatory School, where he went next.
Taryn Essery, who used to teach at Kloof Senior Primary, and later shifted to the Highbury Preparatory School, played a key role in getting Lungi a scholarship at Highbury, a boys’ school that charges 1,00,000 rand (approx ~5.39 lakh) a year.
BORN TO BOWL FAST
Knowledge Villakazi, a teacher at Highbury who also looks after football, recalls, “He was 10 or 11 and was playing cricket in his age group. The wicketkeeper had to stand further back as he failed to collect edges and balls. He was too fast for his age. Even the slip fielders struggled. Lungi and the team were worried. But I told them ‘he plays the senior team next year and they’ll be able to catch it’.”
Soon he got a scholarship to the most expensive school in South Africa, the Hilton College in Durban. His parents are relieved. One son works with the trucks, another at a restaurant. However, Ngidi has also landed a lucrative IPL contract with Chennai Super Kings, makes his parent’s toil worthwhile.