There can only be one Jonty

On completing 39 years of his life, the name Jonty Rhodes still remains synonymous with energetic diving stops and mind blowing flying catches. Gautam Sheth pens down a few words for arguably one of the best fielders cricket has ever seen.

Sometimes I feel hockey has been one of the most unlucky sports. For instance, in India it doesn't get the deserved significance in spite being the national game. Another instance when hockey again lost out was in South Africa. Jonathan Neil Rhodes turned down the offer to represent South African Olympic hockey team for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Again in 1996, he was invited for the trial selection for the Atlanta Olympics squad which he turned down. Hockey, both times missed out on one of the most electrifying athletes the world could have seen. Cricket was lucky to have Rhodes giving it a priority to Football and Hockey.

Nevertheless, Jonty Rhodes should be credited for many more things than just coming to cricket. No one can forget the revolutionary changes he brought in the game of cricket. One man who would never forget Jonty would be former Pakistan batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq. It was 1992 World cup and South Africa were playing their first ever World Cup.

In Brisbane, Pakistan was chasing a small target. Inzy was on the crease with his captain Imran Khan and the stage was well set. But Inzy, Imran, South African players and viewers around the world were lucky in a way to witness what could easily be dubbed as a 'Superman on the cricket field' effect.

Brian McMillan was bowling the 31st over for Proteas and Inzy missed a shot and tried to run for a leg bye. Imran Khan on the other end pulled out of the run after responding with a couple of strides. At that point Inzamam never knew that this would be an end to his innings. Jonty in a fraction of second picked up the ball and ran towards the stumps.

The race to stumps between Inzy and Jonty looked like the 100 meters Grand Prix sprint between the Powells, Gays and Bolts of this world. But Jonty did the unthinkable to win. Instead of the conventional wisdom of having a shy at the stumps, he literally flew in the air with his body parallel to the ground, ball firmly in his right hand and uprooted all the three stumps to run Inzy out.

The whole action might have been explained in a lot of details but it happened in such a quick time that television viewers could only see a blurred green body flying and the next frame showing three stumps resting in peace on the ground. It was Jonty's first and most memorable claim to fame which no one could repeat till now. This stupendous spectacle was just a trailer of things to come from this master fielder.

After this memorable outing, Jonty continued to fly, dive stop runs at his will and wish. He terrorized batsmen merely with his lightning reflexes. No batsmen from that time till he retired dared to run till the ball went past him at least by a distance of 10 yards. Jonty's athleticism was like an innovation in the fielding department. After his feats, fielding at backward point and cover region became an integral part of the team strategy and planning.

Some time back, Kevin Pietersen's switch hitting made news. People blamed T20 for such unwanted innovations. The switch hit could easily be said to have born from the reverse sweep shot. But it was Jonty who perfected the art of reverse sweep under the supervision of his coach then Lt. Bob Woolmer. He can also be attributed as one of the pioneers of taking single runs as an art of cricket.

Jonathan Neil Rhodes, therefore needs to be given a hands down kudos for getting international fielding to a echelon which it would have never come if he would not have dived. Post his retirement; he inspired millions of youngsters taking up cricket to dive left, right, and centre to stop runs.

Post-Jonty the likes of Herschelle Gibbs, Ricky Ponting, Paul Collingwood, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symons, Mohammed Kaif, Yuvraj Singh and others have been the best in business at the backward point and cover region. But the fact remains that there can only be one Jonty.

Pssssst.. ICC why not consider to call backward point as 'Jonty point'.

s_gautam@dnaindia.net