The Full Jonty | Some Words On The Greatest Ever Fielder

We've all had those days haven't we? An entire 40 overs spent standing about in the outfield, not really doing much, thinking about the cake offering at tea or that sweet, sweet, sip of beer when you get back to the pavilion at close of play. We've all had the kind of days, in other words, where we've privately thought 'Yeah, this fielding lark can get pretty dull'.

Jonty Rhodes though, Jonty Rhodes changed all that. Jonty Rhodes made fielding seem like the coolest thing about cricket. Jonty Rhodes was, for a time, your favourite player on earth. Not because of his batting, although he could definitely bat, but because whenever you saw him on the telly at home, standing out there on the big grass expanse with nothing but his hands for company, you always felt like he was about to do something extraordinary.

The camera wasn't always on him, of course. And there was no 'press the red button to see what Jonty's getting up to' option on the remote. But you knew, often just out of shot, that the South African was there, waiting, about to any second now knock down the stumps with a laser-guided missile or take a leaping like a salmon, fully stretched out, diving catch. 

"The South African was there, waiting, about to any second now knock down the stumps with a laser-guided missile”

In your mind, it felt like if you looked away from the TV you might break the spell or, far worse, miss him doing something magical. Watching the replays of his heroics was fine but it wasn't anywhere nearly as satisfying as watching his miracle acts of fielding unfold in the moment. That sense you, the people you were watching with, and cricket fans everywhere had just simultaneously witnessed a Jonty special. Bottle that feeling. It's why we love elite level sport, isn't it? 

Like looking out over the edge of a small wooden raft and seeing a great white shark there swimming about ominously, the batsmen of international cricket could never fully relax when Jonty was in the circle. It didn't matter if they middled one straight out the meat of the bat or if the quick single on offer was, by any reasonable measure, a regulation one, Jonty was always just there; a predator primed and ready to clutch a speeding ball out of thin air, or send the bails flying with a direct hit from an impossible angle.

When you were old enough to play, just the memory of Jonty fielding had the power to make you relish your village cricket stints in the covers, make you pray that a ball would be hit towards you; high and to your right, just about catchable but in that Hollywood, one for the cameras, type way. It never really happened the way you wanted it to but even the thought of it maybe happening always kept you coming back for more. Working on your catching technique became an exciting part of your ‘process’ and the most stationary, standing around on some grass for long periods of time, part of the sport was transformed into an edge of your seat blockbuster thriller where anything could happen. 

The legend of Jonty's fielding started with a diving run out of Inzamam-ul-Haq during the 1992 World Cup and grew from there. His reputation was built off the twin building blocks of natural talent and a 'don't stop me now' approach to practising. Stories of him delaying the team bus to get in one more round of reflex catching on the training pitch sum up the man's mythology. To this day, Jonty holds the record for most catches in an ODI innings (he once gobbled up five against the Windies in 1993).

Years before the IPL, years before the "You cannot do that Ben Stokes" moment at the 2019 World Cup, Jonty Rhodes was making fielding feel like an exciting, rockstar, part of the sport. He's still your all-time favourite fielder.