An indefatigable seam bowler, Ethy Mbhalati was a stalwart at Centurion, where he played for 13 seasons. He racked up 129 first-class caps, the same number of List A matches and 92 T20 games, taking 594 wickets across all formats. That long career was ended when he as implicated in the match-fixing scandal in South Africa's T20 tournament in the 2015-16 summer.

Mbhalati made his debut in the 2002-03 season and at first made an impression in limited-overs cricket. In March 2008, Mbahlati became the first South African to claim a hat-trick in T20 franchise cricket. In that year's T20 competition, Mbhalati was the second-highest wicket-taker with 14 wickets at 14.21. He was third overall in the 2009-10 List A competition with 16 scalps at 19.12 and, in the 2010-11 season, Mbhalati was second on the first-class wicket-takers' list with 39 scalps at 20.58.

His consistency, accuracy and unwavering ability to bowl spell after spell were all worthy characteristics but in a country rich with bowling talent, Mbhalati did not get the opportunity for higher honours. In 2014, Mbhalati was given a benefit year by his franchise as his career seemed to be reaching its twilight stages but he stayed on as a senior player for another season.

On August 1, 2016, Mbhalati was banned for ten years for receiving a payment to fix in the 2015-16 Ram Slam tournament.
Firdose Moonda