No baby steps for Ngidi as he bounds from Hilton to international stage 0
Ability and Humility
Lungi Ngidi (2014, Newnham)
There were no baby steps for the richly talented Lungi Ngidi as he bounded from the playing fields of Hilton College to the international stage.
The tall, imposing Ngidi quickly became one of the world’s premier fast bowlers, making his T20 debut as a 20-year-old and then his Test debut a year later.
And, at the tender age of 24, he went where most would hesitate to venture, quietly and courageously backing the Black Lives Matter movement and helping the Proteas down the path of racial harmony.
Ngidi’s endeavours have been remarkable considering that, in his own words, he has “a very humble background”.
His parents worked at Kloof Primary School, Bongi as a domestic worker and Jerome in maintenance, but it was their son’s sporting talent which secured his future and won him scholarships first to Highbury and then Hilton College.
Signed by the Titans on leaving Hilton, Ngidi was man-of-the-match on his T20 debut against Sri Lanka in 2017. A year later, on Test debut, he picked up the award again, taking six for 39 in India’s second innings as the Proteas won the series.
The cricket world sat up and Ngidi has continued to be a regular mainstay of the Proteas team, representing them well over 100 times across the three formats.
Ngidi’s career has been crammed with awards and accolades, and, all the while, those closest to him have admired both his ability and humility.
His first national captain, Faf du Plessis, said “it is obvious that Lungi is a very special, humble human being”. Ngidi himself pays tribute to Hilton College for forming and shaping the exceptional cricketer and person he has become.
“I would never have been able to do what I’ve done were it not for the amazing opportunities I received at school. It’s a great honour for me to have attended Hilton College and I’m very grateful that they saw value in me. Thanks to them, I was able to meet lots of people from different walks of life, which has meant a lot to me.
“In terms of my cricket, the school gave me lots of opportunities and I was fortunate to have someone like Shane Gaffney, who really helped me to believe in my ability, and amazing coaches like Neil Johnson, who helped kickstart my career because he knew what it took to play international cricket,” Ngidi says.