Cricket & Superstitions

Lucky №2
Before Makhaya Ntini ended his career with 390 Test wickets from 101 matches, and before he became the first black African to represent South Africa in the most prestigious format of the game, he was a barefooted cattle herder in the rural Eastern Cape. On cold winter mornings, the young Ntini and his friends would keep warm in an unusual way. “We would wait for freshly dropped cow dung and sink our feet in it,” Ntini reveals. “When you don’t have shoes, you have to be creative.”

As an elite cricketer, Ntini’s cattle herding days were behind him but that did not mean the “Mdingi Express” ever forgot where he came from. Along with the best cricket shoes money could buy, Ntini always kept a plastic-wrapped piece of cow dung stored away in his kit bag. “It was always the same piece of dung throughout my career and was my lucky charm that kept me grounded, I would even kiss it when I needed a little extra out on the field.

“It clearly worked — just look at my stats!”

This appeared first on the ESPNCricinfo. If you enjoyed our recommendation, please spread the word by hitting that little heart!

A note from The Cricket Huddle: Every day we filter the best of cricket stories from the internet. It’s kind of like if your friend read the internet all day then told you the important stuff in a fun, easy to understand way. Try our Cricket App to get these pieces of wisdom every day and impress your coworkers with how smart you are.