When the former South African Test cricketer Colin Bland passed away last year, there was one tribute, among the many that poured in, that stood out. It came from Jonty Rhodes, hailing Bland as the ‘father of fielding’. Bland, who played 21 Tests in the sixties, is widely recognised as the first cricketer to truly popularise the art of fielding, a pioneer who, in the words of the Wisden Almanack, “demonstrated that fielding can be both a delight and an exhilarating spectacle”. Years later, cricketers of a different generation would say much the same thing of Rhodes. He did things on a cricket field people simply did not imagine possible; he turned fielding into a specialised occupation.
“I had a reputation for my fielding at school already...before fielding was even a thing,” Rhodes says. “It’s in the school yearbook – the coach wrote that it was quite unusual to see somebody doing this in the field. I never saw Bland play but apparently he had a great reputation of being someone who hit the stumps very well. But I grew up always a stopper.”
It helped, says Rhodes, that he played a number of different sports. “I played tennis, hockey, cricket and football. I actually trained like a goalkeeper to improve my fielding at backward point. All that allowed me to be a good fielder.”
But the one overarching factor he credits for his success is simply his love for fielding. “I just loved to field. Wherever the ball was, I wanted to be there. Not for a moment did I want to sit quietly at deep square leg or fine leg and rest. From the first over to the last over of a Test match, I was chasing anything and everything. I enjoyed it.”
Rhodes is in India as an advisor for StarPick, an online fantasy gaming platform. With the ongoing World Cup, interest in the platform is set to soar, believes Trigam Mukherjee, the company’s CEO.
As Rhodes hands out autographed bats to some of StarPick’s previous winners, his iconic run-out from the 1992 World Cup plays on loop in the background. “For me, fielding is all about the movement of the feet,” he says. “You may have the best hands in the world, but if you can't get there you can't catch them.”
It has been 16 years since Rhodes retired from international cricket, but he has remained connected to the game. He was Mumbai Indians’ fielding coach for nine IPL seasons, till he quit in 2017. Part of a coach’s role is being understanding when fielders make mistakes, he says. “You have to be realistic with your expectations. I’m not trying to have 11 Kieron Pollards or Hardik Pandyas in the field. I’m just trying to make every player a better fielder. You encourage the fielders as much as possible. Because if you’re critical when they drop a catch or miss a ball, then they don’t want to go for a catch next time.”
There is no such thing, he says, as an easy catch. “You lose the ball in the crowd, you lose it in the light. As a bowler, if you've just bowled an over and you've finished with a bad delivery, you’re thinking about that. You’re a bit slow to react and then you go hard at the ball. If it looks easy from the outside that's because you see it in slow motion. Because the camera follows the ball so well, you don't appreciate how hard it is to track the ball when it goes out above the lights. I've missed the ball many times. If a catch goes down, I'm asking: ‘Was his positioning good or bad?’ I’m not saying, ‘Oh, he's dropped it.’ I’m focused on the process, not the end result.”
It is difficult, smiles Rhodes, to list the best fielders he has seen in action. “Herschelle Gibbs, AB de Villiers, Ricky Ponting – they were all incredible. Paul Collingwood was also a superb fielder.” Also in his top six is Suresh Raina. “He takes some brilliant catches. I just love the fact that he dives for the ball, whether he’s going to get it or not. That was my philosophy as a fielder too.”