Flying Fish

 

A collection of images of Jonty Rhodes mid-air, with the ability to jump both vertically and horizontally.

Jonty Rhodes was cricket's first real fielder, before him, it was just something to do while waiting for your turn to bowl. Rhodes literally flew into legendary stratospheres with his full-body diving run out of Inzamam-ul-Haq in the 1992 World Cup match between South Africa and Pakistan. Instead of attempting to throw down the stumps as was common practice for a run out, he sprinted towards them, ball in hand, and hurtled towards the wickets - a full-stretched flying dive - like a human cannonball, his entire body parallel to the grass beneath him, and resoundly clattered into the stumps and Inzamam was on his way back to the pavilion.

"Out of the corner of the eye I saw Jonty diving in. I'd never seen a bloke dive at the wickets ever before."

He leapt like a salmon, or a dog catching a frisbee, flying through the air as if a Hollywood action film explosion was propelling him.

When I represented Auckland in cricket as a teenager I was once compared to Jonty Rhodes in the field. It was the best cricket compliment I had ever received.