30 April 2006
Dubai: Jonty Rhodes will take charge as South Africa's fielding coach on a full time basis after his brief assignment with Pakistan."Soon after my two-week stint as a fielding coach with the Pakistan team I will take over as the fielding coach of the South African team till the 2007 World Cup," remarked Rhodes to Gulf News.
Rhodes, who was in Dubai to conduct a coaching clinic last week, returned here again yesterday to address the Emirates Holidays World Delegates Conference.
"I just went home for a day and had talks with the South African Cricket Board. Both my assignments are getting finalised.
"The South African Cricket Board has no objection to my proposed assignment with the Pakistan cricket team as it is only for two weeks," he said.
Elaborating on the South African team assignment, Rhodes said: "I am to be assigned as the fielding coach of the South African team for the Champions Trophy. I am likely to be involved in the India-Pakistan-South Africa triangular one-day series too."
Rhodes, who works for the Standard Bank in South Africa and helps the bank with its cricket sponsorship, said: "As of now it could be a 120-day contract with the South African Cricket Board. The details are being finalised. Personally, I would be delighted to be involved with the South African team."
Shaharyar Khan, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, in a statement from Karachi said that a decision on Rhodes will be made next week. He has already held talks with the South African Cricket Board officials about Rhodes' availability. Rhodes later went on to talk about team spirit to the delegates of the Emirates Holidays.
"When we came into world cricket, we were an inexperienced side. We had a captain named Keppler Wessels, a man who believed that one can do the impossible.
"He imbibed in us the importance of team spirit and between 1995 and 2000 we went on to become the No 1 side in the world. We achieved it purely due to team work," he said.
"After Wessels, we had Hansie Cronje as captain and coach Bob Woolmer, both of whom could promote team work.
"We were also a happy team. The reason that we were a happy team was because we were a winning team. We became a winning team because of our team spirit," he revealed.
Rhodes added, "We won 75 per cent of our matches, which means that every four games that we played, we used to win three and obviously we were bound to be a happy team."
By K.R. Nayar
Gulf News 2006. All rights reserved.
