da realbet： The uncertainties of the game not withstanding, it was a strange sightat the Wanderers on Friday to see the South African side being shoddyon the field
Woorkheri Raman06-Oct-2001© CricInfoThe uncertainties of the game not withstanding, it was a strange sightat the Wanderers on Friday to see the South African side being shoddyon the field. They are generally a fantastic fielding unit what withthe likes of Rhodes, Gibbs, Kallis ever present to stifle the batsmenwith their superb fielding.If Sachin Tendulkar caught the imagination of the World with hisbatting talent in the early nineties, one Jonty Rhodes made the entireWorld sit up and take notice with his acrobatic fielding.It is only natural that Rhodes is as revered in South Africa as SachinTendulkar is in India. Both are almost of the same age and areconsidered role models for youngsters at least in their respectivecountries if not the whole world.Rhodes made his presence felt in a telling manner in the first WorldCup, South Africa played on their return to official internationalcricket. Seeing him on television was one thing but taking him on thefield was another thing altogether.The Indians toured South Africa in 1992 and it was at that timeeveryone watched Rhodes with unabashed surprise and admiration. Wewere all aware that Rhodes was athletic, agile and could knock downthe stumps more often than not with a direct hit.He exhibited his speed in one incident which left all of us shakingour heads in disbelief. He was fielding at his customary position atcover point. I can’t remember who the batsman was, but the ball wasplayed along the ground on the on-side. What happened next was to beseen to be believed. There was Rhodes sprinting from cover point downto long on and he beat Andrew Hudson who chased from short leg by afew yards and stopped the ball inches from the ropes! It was onlyappropriate then that Rhodes was involved in the first decision to bemade by the third umpire in international cricket.It is impossible for Rhodes to be still and he is always on the moveand his energy levels are incredible. But it has to be said thatRhodes is brilliant on the field due to his hard work over the years.He reckons that Colin Bland was the one who inspired him the most andyet today he has left a lot of people wondering if it is possible foranyone to be as good as him on the field. Such is his modesty thoughthat he does not rate himself as the best fielder in World cricket asa result of his inability to field close-in. Thank God for that! He istroublesome enough at cover point for batsmen round the World and I amsure no batsman would want him to specialize in close-in catching.© AFPHis fielding is a major attraction for the spectators. But I assureyou most definitely not for the batsmen! The pressure that he buildsup on the men in the middle is enormous. There is hardly anyopportunity for the batsmen to rotate strike as he is up in a flashpreventing singles. His work on the field is of tremendous help to thequicker bowlers as they get to bowl at a particular batsman for areasonable amount of time. Over the years he has had to combat withquite a few problems but it is a reflection on the man that he hasovercome every obstacle and has played for his country.At this point of his career, he has decided to just play in theshorter version of the game and quite obviously the South Africans areglad to have him back on the field. There was some talk in SouthAfrica that Herschelle Gibbs might one day be talked more about thanJonty Rhodes. All I can say is that even though Gibbs has provedhimself to be an outstanding fielder in his own right, there can onlybe one Jonty Rhodes.