Jonty Rhodes

Jonty Rhodes and his evergreen Inzamam ul Haq run-out, is etched in the cricket fans’ memory for eternity. He is fast, agile, and brisk on the field, and thanks to playing hockey in his younger days, Rhodes made the backward point region his own.

The Natal-born cricketer debuted for South Africa during the World Cup game against Australia in 1992. Following the year, he didn’t contribute with the bat much but the fielding of Rhodes was the key talking point from the global event. Apart from running Inzamam out in an acrobatic fashion, Rhodes pulled another stunner when he dismissed Craig McDermott with another sensational runout, apart from grabbing four catches. 

Later in the summer, he became a Test player when played his maiden game against India at Durban. As his career progressed, the fielding great became an integral part of the Proteas setup. In 1993, he took a world record of five catches to achieve the most dismissals by a fielder (other than a wicketkeeper). Six years later, the South African was voted as one of the 'Wisden Cricketers of the Year' in 1999. 

Rhodes went to play 52 Tests and 245 ODIs for South Africa where he scored a total of 8467 runs, including five centuries and 50 fifties, apart from his 139 catches. He had a much-celebrated international career of 11 years as an unfortunate finger fracture during the 2003 World Cup cut-short his career, before playing a county season for Gloucestershire. 

Post-retirement, the South African had tried various jobs. He was hired by Standard Bank as an account executive but he decided to engage himself in cricket itself. Rhodes has tried commentating before he started coaching. He has worked with the South Africa team, Mumbai Indians, Kings Punjab, Pune Devils and also signed a contract with the Swedish Cricket Federation in 2020. 

After a leap of 18 years, Rhodes returned to cricket when he captained South African legends during the Road Safety tournament in India.

(As of April 2021)