Ntini's academy dream in tatters

THERE is a piece of land in Mdantsane that could have a cricket pitch laid across its belly.

It could have the footsteps of a few hundred young men leaving their mark on it as they learn to bowl. It could contain the nets in which South Africa's next test centurion masters his strokes. It could, but it does not.

The land is being leased by Makhaya Ntini and is the proposed spot for the academy he was due to start when he retired in November 2010. Fifteen months since then, there has been no development. All Ntini has is a bowling machine, given to him by Standard Bank.

"There's no progress at all. It's actually quite frustrating," Ntini said. "Whenever I go there every child that I pass, asks me when the academy is opening. The worst thing for me to do is lie to them and say next time, because I don't know. We turned the soil three years ago but other than that, nothing."

Ntini estimates that he needs "around R20million" to build the structure and obtain all the equipment he needs to have a fully functioning academy for players from the ages of seven to 24 from all over Eastern Cape.

"I want to make sure it's an academy where kids don't pay a cent. When I was found I didn't pay a cent," he said. "They must be able to learn everything so that when they play games at schools or in clubs, they've already been taught the ins and outs of the sport."

Ntini hopes the academy will run all year round and host seminars by former international players. "Rain or no rain, we must have a place where the kids can come and have fun and play cricket. I have also asked friends that I played cricket with to do coaching clinics for three or four days."

Once set up, the potential to produce a black African international player is real, according to Ntini.

"Eastern Cape is one of the biggest areas to bring out black cricketers. We should not let it die," Ntini said. "People in that area know cricket, there's no other sport that we know."

The day Ntini told Cricket SA CEO Gerald Majola he was "giving back" his green-and-gold jersey, a part of South African cricket died. The country's first black African player would no longer stand as an icon. Though Lonwabo Tsotsobe has established himself in the one-day side, there is no black African test player, something Ntini laments.

"It was one of my wishes that within two or three years of my retirement there would be some black African players coming up," Ntini said. "If Lopsy gets injured, who else is going to play?"

Without an academy like Ntini's that question will remain unanswered for a long time.