JOIN US'Baseball can help improve throwing'
Cricketers can take help from a fielding coach with a strong baseball background like Mike Young to improve their performance on the field, especially throwing skills, former South African player Jonty Rhodes said on Thursday.
The 42-year-old, who is the fielding coach of IPL team Mumbai Indians, also rued that the art of throwing the ball was not taught to him as a youngster, adding it was one area where baseball can definitely help cricket.
“I think the key with (taking the help of) baseball is throwing. I think that’s one area we (cricketers) don’t work on. I have tried really hard to change that. I have spoken a lot with Mike Young when I was the fielding coach of South Africa and he was coaching Australia,” Rhodes told PTI here.
The Chicago-born Young went to Australia in the early 1980s to continue his career as a baseball coach and also led the nation’s squad to a fifth-place finish, it’s best-ever then -- in the Seoul Olympic Games -- before Cricket Australia engaged him as a fielding coach for its squad in 2000.
“The impact baseball can have and (the advantage) in having a guy like Mike Young (with you), is that you can improve your throwing. I think baseball can make a huge contribution to the way cricket players throw,” said Rhodes.
“That’s the best way to save 3s to 2 or 2s to 1. If someone has got a strong throw, players (rival batsmen) don’t take them on (while running between the wickets),’’ he said.
“That’s (throwing) one area I never got coached. No technique is taught to kids (in cricket) about throwing ...if you can catch the ball and throw it’s good enough. And I have done a lot of work in India with Mumbai Indians and also have my own coaching academy, but the biggest downfall is the throw,” added the South African, who used to mesmerise spectators with his acrobatic catching, diving stops and fleet-footedness at backward point.
Rhodes, who took a quintet of amazing catches in an ODI against the West Indies at the Cricket Club of India here during the Hero Cup Tournament in November 1993 to earn the man of the match award, said fielding has changed dramatically from his days as a player.
“The key (change) for me is that the specialist fielder used to be the guy fielding at backward point, covers or in the slips in a Test, but now a specialist fielder is the one who fields on the boundary, saving the fours and sixes and making sure the twos are translated down just to a single.
“The specialist fielder (of a team) is no longer at backward point or in the covers. You can’t have just two or three specialists. You got to have everybody contributing. Because the guys are playing some amazing shots and the ball goes to every part of the field,” said Rhodes, who played 52 Tests for the Proteas from 1992 to 2000.
Rhodes felt the South African team has been blessed with several good fielders. He mentioned AB de Villiers, JP duminy and Robin Peterson as men of outstanding talent in the fielding department.
“In South Africa, it’s obviously a guy like AB de Villers. In 50 overs and 20 overs he’s got the wicketkeeping gloves on. It’s sad for me (when he keeps wickets) as I always like to watch him in the field. JP Duminy is another great fielder.”