Leaner, meaner Ngidi short of a smile. And a milkshake …

“You’ve got to limit a lot more things that are harmful to your body. It’s the lifestyle of being a sportsman.” – Lungi Ngidi

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

POUR some sugar on Lungi Ngidi. Maybe it was the syrupy heat of a proper Cape Town summer afternoon, or the fact that he had alighted from an airplane — where desserts are rarely worth eating — a short while previously, but he sounded like he needed sweetening up when he spoke to the press at Newlands on Sunday.

Maybe because Ngidi, along with Jon-Jon Smuts, Tabraiz Shamsi and Sisanda Magala, is fresh from spending three weeks at boot camp. Or what Cricket South Africa called a “conditioning camp”. Those players’ fitness, it seems, was an issue. All except Magala came through well enough to keep their places in South Africa’s squad for the ODI series against England starting on Tuesday.

Ngidi is a long way from fat. But he has emerged from the camp leaner, he said, by “about four or five kilos”. His smile, usually as broad as the day is long, was worth at least half that lost weight: it was significantly narrower on Sunday. Maybe this is projection, but it seems he could murder a milkshake right about now.

What was the routine at the camp? “Running, bowling, gymming. It’s just a block [of time] where you can 100% focus on training. It’s a lot harder in season to get that conditioning done. So to get that time off and be able to do that was the main thing about it.

“You speak to dieticians, you work with strength and conditioning coaches, you try find the best way to lose weight and also maintain strength and fitness. There’s a lot that goes into it behind the scenes. Most people only know that we had a camp. But at the camp you do a lot more than what people know. You’ve got to limit a lot more things that are harmful to your body. It’s the lifestyle of being a sportsman.”

Ngidi is 23 years and 1.93 metres of fast bowling thunder and lightning. Depending on which end of the pitch you’re at he is either a thrill or a terror to behold. He made his international debut in a Test against India at Centurion in January 2018 and claimed 6/39 in the second innings. But has played only for more Tests, not least because he is often injured. So fare, he has missed out because of hip, knee, abdomen and hamstring problems along with stress fractures. Ngidi has had 34 games across the formats for South Africa. In the same period the more resilient Kagiso Rabada has played 56 matches. Ngidi’s latest calamity, a hamstring issue, struck in December during the Mzansi Super League. Why all the pain and suffering for someone who, by the look of him, is a magnificent physical specimen? “It’s hard to pinpoint,” Ngidi said. “We do a lot of work as national players but everyone’s formula’s different. I’m a bit bigger than the other guys, so it probably takes a bit more out of my body to bowl.”

Even so, he will go into this series as the leader of South Africa’s attack. With Rabada rested and Anrich Nortjé, Chris Morris and Dale Steyn not selected, no-one in the squad packs anything like Ngidi’s pace. He can’t take the prized wickets of Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler because they aren’t in England’s party. Does he fancy others? “I’d like all of them. That’s my main thing right now — to take as many wickets as possible. It doesn’t matter who’s playing for them. Our aim is to win the series. Even if they were here it would be the same: to win the series. They’re good players, but a good ball is a still a good ball on any day.”

The last time Ngidi was in a South Africa side, in a Test against India in Ranchi in October, Enoch Nkwe was interim director, and responsibility for preparing the batters and bowlers fell to former Mumbai stalwart Amol Muzumdar and Vincent Barnes. Now, Mark Boucher is the head coach with Jacques Kallis and Charl Langeveldt assisting him. Ngidi was undaunted by all the changes: “I’ve been coached by Boucher since he was at the Titans [Ngidi’s franchise], so I think that relationship will be the same. I worked with Langeveldt the first season that I came into the Proteas, so I guess the only person that I haven’t worked with is Jacques Kallis. But he did come into the Titans camp once or twice. So I’m not too anxious about it.”

With the next ODI World Cup more than three years away but the T20 global showpiece looming in Australia in October and November, the England rubber is more an opportunity to stake a claim for the T20 World Cup than a contest in its own right. “Everyone’s fighting for a spot there, but that’s quite far down the line,” Ngidi said with a face filled with seriousness. “The first step in on Tuesday.”

In his first outing since returning from injury, a one-dayer against the Lions at Centurion on Friday, he took 3/40 from nine overs — and bagged South Africa squadmates Reeza Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen, both caught behind — into the bargain. England’s batters should be worried that even that couldn’t bring back Ngidi’s smile: “I pride myself on the way I bounce back from things. That was a step in the right direction.”

We won’t tell the fitness fanatics if you don’t: please, someone, get the kid a milkshake.

First published by Cricbuzz.

Work for SA batting coach

“Having spent 25 years on the pitch as a player I intend to spend the next 25 tapping and grooming talent on the cricket field.” – interim South Africa batting coach Amol Muzumdar

TELFORD VICE in London

YOU might wonder whether Amol Muzumdar agreed to be South Africa’s men’s Test team’s interim batting coach before Monday — when he gained an inkling into the size of the job ahead of him.

South Africa A were put in to bat by their India counterparts in their four-day match in Thiruvananthapuram, and dismissed for 164 in 51.5 overs.

Why is that Muzumdar’s problem?

Because five players who were part of that shaky batting display are also in the squad for the three Tests South Africa will play in India next month, when Muzumdar will be part of the coaching contingent.

Two of those players — Aiden Markram and Zubayr Hamza — are likely to be in the top six.

Another two — Senuran Muthusamy and Dane Piedt — have scored eight centuries and 29 half-centuries between them at first-class level.

That’s why Monday’s mess is Muzumdar’s problem.

To him falls the responsibility of making those players, and the rest of South Africa’s batters, straighten up and fly right if the series isn’t to echo the disastrous 2016 tour there, when India won 3-0.

“Amol is a perfect fit for us,” a Cricket South Africa release on Monday quoted acting director of cricket Corrie van Zyl as saying.

“He brings an intimate knowledge of Indian playing conditions and the challenges our batsmen are likely to face.

“He also assisted us at the spin bowling camp we held recently in India and thus has already built up a good working relationship with Aiden Markram, Temba Bavuma and Zubayr Hamza.”

Muzumdar himself talked a good game, according to the release: “Cricket has always been and will continue to be my calling.

“Having spent 25 years on the pitch as a player I intend to spend the next 25 tapping and grooming talent on the cricket field.”

Muzumdar, 44, played 171 first-class matches — 103 of them for Mumbai — between February 1994 and November 2013.

He scored 11 167 runs at an average of 48.13 with 30 centuries and 60 half-centuries.

As a coach he has worked with India’s under-19 and under-23 sides and with the Netherlands’ senior team.

And it’s as a coach that he matters for a South Africa team in need of guidance in the wake of a poor World Cup.

Markram was caught behind for a fourth-ball duck on Monday, with Hamza lasting 30 balls for his 13.

It gets better from there, what with Muthusamy staying alive for 48 deliveries before being run out for 12.

Piedt clipped his 33 off 45, and hitting six fours, and Ngidi bumped his average up to 5.14 by scoring 15.

But Muzumdar’s work will be judged on how players further up the order than Muthusamy, Piedt and Ngidi get on.

He has a plenty of work to do on that score, but he will know that a little improvement — particularly in Indian conditions — will go a long way. 

First published by TMG Digital.