Makhaya Ntini

South Africa's first black African international cricketer, Makhaya Ntini was something of an unlikely pace spearhead. His deliveries, speared across the batter from wide of the crease, were not express, but he was relentless, extremely fit and mentally resilient, and finished with just short of 400 Test wickets.

Ntini emerged from the backwaters of the Eastern Cape in 1993, discovered by the then United Cricket Board's (UCB) development programme, and made it to Dale College, a prestigious school where cricket's roots run deep.

He made his international debut in 1998, but his career was nearly over before it started when he was convicted of rape the following year. He was acquitted on appeal and returned to action after almost 20 months in the wilderness, and went on to be a fixture in the national team for the next ten years.

Ntini did not impress early, averaging close to 40 over his first 20-odd Tests, and was beginning to be dismissed as one-dimensional when he found a different gear, harvesting 77 wickets in 15 matches at under 25 runs each. That included ten wickets at Lord's in 2003 (the first such haul at that venue by a South African), in a series where he topped the wicket-takers' table. Later that year, he took 29 wickets in the four home Tests against West Indies; his career best 13 for 132 came against the same side, under Port-of-Spain's blazing sun and on a not particularly lively Queen's Park Oval pitch in 2005, making for a perfect précis of his career. Ntini toiled manfully again against Australia in Johannesburg the following year, taking ten wickets in a close defeat. Two weeks later he produced an encore, against New Zealand, in a win this time.

In ODIs, he made an impact in South Africa's win in the triangular series in Australia in 2002, taking five in the first of two finals they won against New Zealand. A year later, he their top wicket-taker, with ten in the six games of the home ODI World Cup which ended in tears for South Africa.

Ntini's 100th Test, against England in Centurion in December 2009, was celebrated with gusto across the country, but it proved to be his last hurrah. Largely ineffective, he was dropped for the last two Tests of the series. Eleven months later he announced his international retirement, but his place in South Africa history had long-since been secured.