Fielding ace Jonty Rhodes picks Raina as the best Indian fielder

The South African searched for the answer, starting with Mohammed Kaif from the past, stopped at Yuvraj Singh for a second and then asked himself whether Virat Kohli is the right person before hitting the bull’seye and with a firm voice uttered: Raina, haven’t you heard of Suresh Raina, he is the best in the business from India.” 

As though to explain his remarks, Jonty, who was at the Velammal Vidyalaya to give way awards to various students in different fields of sport, music, academics, art, said Kaif set the trend in India, which had no great assets in the field. “Yuvraj was one of the better fielders and Kohli is alright but to me Raina was a cut above the rest. The difference between Raina and the rest was that he would go for it (the ball) regardless of whether he would reach there or not,” Rhodes said and added he saw a tinge of a younger Rhodes in Raina when he made those attempts. IN short, he underlined, youngsters should be free of a fear of failure.

Rhodes exhorted the youngsters to go for the unchartered areas without looking at the results. “In traditional cricket, you have six batsmen, a wicket-keeper and four bowlers, but just think about the all-rounders, they are the best assets to any team. Students should also be all-rounders and excel in all areas,” he said.

Rhodes was all praise for the Tamil Nadu Premier League, Chennai and India, in general, for the kind of promotion they give to cricket. “I have been to Chennai so many times that I lose count of my visits here,” said the mentor of TNPL team Ruby Trichy Warriors. “In India, the system allows young players to make their mark at the right time, something which we don’t have in the rest of the world. The TNPL is an incredible system for the youngsters to grow to the next level,” he reasoned.

Rhodes refuted the fear that T20 cricket would lead to the death of Test cricket. “I would rather say T20 would decimate 50-over cricket. The kind of development that T20 has witnessed in batting, bowling and especially fielding is unbelievable. It has improved the skills of the players in general. Those days batsmen get into the nineties, the nervous nineties, they go to 91, 92, 93 and slowly reach the mark. Today, you reach 94 and in one shot, you reach your hundred. This is a welcome trend and T20 has played its part in this,” he explained. 

Rhodes signed off in a lighter vein saying he saw too many placards of his name written on them greeting him outside the airport, but “let us have only one Rhodes and not too many.”