 |
| |
|
 |
 |
|
|
||||||||||||||
|
Rhodes scholar Cricket will miss injured South African's electric skillsPosted: Friday February 14, 2003 12:53 PM
By Candy Reid, SI.com Jonty Rhodes, arguably the best fielder in the world, finished off his international career by trying to make one last acrobatic catch. Unfortunately he didn’t make the catch and broke a bone in his hand in the process. The break isn’t career-stopping in itself -- he’ll be fit again in three weeks -- but the South African selectors decided to drop him so a replacement could be brought in. It’s a bitter blow for Rhodes, for South Africa cricket, and for the fans that wanted to see a world-class fielder in action for the last time. The 33 year-old announced he would retire from internationals anyway after the World Cup and he retired from test cricket over two years ago. He’s not only a great fielder. In 245 one-day internationals -– he’s South Africa’s most experienced one-day player -- and 52 tests, Rhodes’ batting average is just over 35 and he has often played a key role as a batting "finisher." But he’ll be remembered most for his athletic ability in the field and electric quickness... what cricket fan can forget his run-out of Inzamam-ul-Haq at the Gabba during the 1992 World Cup? South Africa’s Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour described Rhodes’ premature departure from the World Cup as a near tragedy. For the co-hosts it certainly is. South Africa has never won cricket’s showpiece event before and were placing a lot of hope on Rhodes to lead the team to the final on March 23 in front of a home crowd. For anyone who wants to see Rhodes play again, he'll spend this summer playing county cricket for Gloucestershire in England. But his efforts on the world stage are sadly over and cricket shall certainly miss him. Candy Reid is an anchor on CNN International's World Sport TV show.
|
|
||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
