Ntini came from humble beginnings where he tended cattle in his home village of Mdingi in the Eastern Cape. It was there that his talent was discovered and he was sent to Dale College in King William's Town where he would develop his game. His action was intentionally modelled on West Indian great Malcolm Marshall. After a brief spell with Border his break came courtesy of an injury to Roger Telemachus and Ntini was included in the South African squad to tour Australia late in 1997. His international début came on January 16th at Perth against New Zealand where he took 2/30 off his full quota of 10 overs. A couple of months later, on March 19th, he made history by becoming the first black South African Test cricketer (though not the first non-White cricketer, as bi-racial Charles Llewellyn made his Test début in 1896). The Test match was at home in Cape Town against Sri Lanka and his maiden wicket was Aravinda De Silva who would be one of his 2 wickets in the game.