Fielding the Jonty way

The Indians are in town, and so is Jonty Rhodes. Is Colombo big enough? One thing is certain, the relationship between the world's largest cricket media contingent and one of the most personable men ever to have played the game is as strong as ever.

Where once there was frenzied passion and blind love from the Indian media, on behalf of the Indian people - and bewildered acceptance from a young Rhodes - there is now a happy, mutual respect that resembles a middle-aged, married couple rather than the young lovers of a decade ago.

A press conference was organised on behalf of Rhodes because if he had given just 15 minutes to each newspaper and magazine correspondent who requested an interview, never mind the television stations, he would have had no time to spend teaching the Proteas how to catch. In fact, he would have had no time for sleeping or eating, either.

The turnout was impressive, as it always is for Jonty. But apart from the dozens of writers, there were also a dozen television cameras, a product of the explosion of independent television stations in India. At the last count there were 35 and, although some don't cover cricket, most are acutely aware of the markets in which they can most easily get their bread buttered.

After 15 minutes of cameras-rolling and Jonty talking, he looked down quickly at the spread of microphones, mini-discs and tape recorders on the table in front of him. There had been the distinctive 'click' of a tape recorder coming to the end of a tape and switching itself off. Rhodes peered from one to another, searching..."Sorry, carry on with your question," he said, still looking down. "I'm listening..."

Eventually he found it, picked it carefully out of the pack, flipped the tape over, pressed 'record' and placed it gently back on the table. "Good question," he said, looking up, "and I'll tell you why..."

Small, insignificant even trivial detail, perhaps, but an example nontheless of why he is so popular. It's not just 'attention to detail' that singles special people out from the rest, it's attention to 'all detail'. Those who pick and choose when to care will always, eventually, be identified as fake. For the single 'click' that made Rhodes do what he did, I've heard a thousand more, louder and more obtrusive, which have elicited either nothing or a sneer from the player above.

So how does Jonty explain the rash of dropped catches that proved so costly and painful against Australia, and the half dozen or so which went down in the two tests against Sri Lanka? Lack of concentration, perhaps? Actually, it may be the opposite, according to Rhodes. Too much concentration.

"You can't concentrate for two hours at a time during a session of test cricket. You need to learn how to switch on and off between balls," Rhodes says.

"You have to ration yourself. In between deliveries I used to switch off completely, chat to the umpire, crack a joke, interact with the crowd - but when the bowler started his run-up I would switch back on and expect every ball to come to me. Just like a soccer goalkeeper, I expected every ball to come to me, so I was in the right postion when it did."

Professional golfers do the same thing in between shots and they have their own 'trigger switches' to turn their concentration on and off. Lee Trevino, for example, used to push his cap back on his head while walking down the fairway chatting, joking and laughing, but when he reached his ball he pulled his cap back down, which was his cue to switch back 'on.'

Rhodes was asked how South Africa had lost their reputation for being the best fielding side in the world, a reputation gained by hours of hard work during his playing days.

"We didn't lose it, I just believe that everyone else realised what an important component of one-day cricket fielding is - and not just just one-day cricket, test cricket, too. Instead of 'losing it', we just reached a plateau and everyone else raised their game to reach the level of the South Africans. We don't suddenly have 11 bad fielders in the team," Rhodes said.

"There are elements which can be introduced to take us forward to a different level. We set ourselves very high standards so, to make a difference and once again become an innovative team, which lead from the front, we're going to have to adopt a few new ideas. It's not a major overhaul, it's not reinventing the wheel, it's just becoming sharper once again, sharper than the rest," Rhodes said.

And with that we collected our tape recorders and left the great man to do his one-on-one television interviews with the fawning female presenters all the new Indian television stations appear to believe are a compulsory ingredient for success in the most competitive sports market in the world.

"Tell us about that famous run-out of Inzamam during the 1992 World Cup," the first one gushes. And he does, for the 1 768th time, and with the honesty and enthusiasm of the first.