Ntini, the first black African to represent the Proteas and one of its most successful players ever, announced on Tuesday he was giving up international cricket. He has not appeared for South Africa since December 2009.

But CSA chief executive Gerald Majola insisted the immensely popular Ntini “will say goodbye in Proteas colors” in a Twenty20 international against India early next year.

“Makhaya, what you’ve meant to South African cricket, we can’t let you retire outside the field,” an emotional Majola said. “The selectors understand that the team will be Makhaya plus others,” he added, explaining he had sought special permission from the team’s selection panel to pick Ntini for the farewell match at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Jan. 9.

CSA also hopes a record South African cricket crowd of 60,000 attends the game at one of the 2010 football World Cup stadiums.

Ntini has the second highest number of test wickets by a South African, and the team’s best test and one-day match figures.

Earlier, the 33-year-old Ntini said he was bowing out after 11 years in international cricket in a surprise announcement at the end of a media briefing to outline plans for the upcoming series between South Africa and India.

“Today is the day that nobody ever wants to happen in their careers, when they say ‘it’s time for me to move on and say goodbye to cricket.’ I’m retiring from playing cricket for South Africa in all formats of the game ...

it’s hard but there’s nothing we can do about it,” a smiling Ntini said.

“We have to tie our laces, dust off our jackets and see what the light of tomorrow will bring.” He said he would continue playing for his province.

Ntini is one of South Africa’s best-ever fast bowlers, playing 101 tests and 173 ODIs. He took 390 test wickets for the Proteas, second only to Shaun Pollock’s 421, and 266 one-day wickets.

He holds South Africa records for the best figures in a test (13-132 vs. the West Indies at Trinidad in 2005) and in an ODI (6-23 against Australia at Cape Town in 2006). He shares the South Africa record of four 10-wicket hauls in tests with Dale Steyn, and is the only South African to take 10 wickets in a test at cricket’s home, Lord’s in London.

His incredible success on the pitch was accentuated by his humble background.

Ntini was born in a small, impoverished village in the country’s Eastern Cape region, couldn’t speak English until he was in his mid-teens, and yet still became one of the country’s great players in a sport that is not traditionally pursued by black South Africans.

“Playing 100 test matches, it was a day that I thought would never happen,” he said. “(But) I don’t need to be remembered for what I’ve achieved or what I’ve done, but what I’ve inspired.” Ntini said he would dedicate his time to developing a cricket academy in the Eastern Cape city of East London, where he will focus on helping unearth players from poor, rural backgrounds — like his.

“I’m not done yet, you’re still going to see me,” he said.

He thanked CSA for its support through “thick and thin, the ups and downs” and referred to his 1999 conviction for rape, which was overturned on appeal, as the “hardest time” of his life and “the worst thing.” Ntini vehemently protested his innocence and was acquitted.

“Makhaya is by far the most successful black cricketer in the history of South African cricket,” CSA president Mtutuzeli Nyoka said. “I think he is one of the most revered cricketers around the world. He’s done what he was not supposed to do — he has succeeded against unspeakable odds.”