Jonty Rhodes’ career looked set to end in sad anti-climax on Thursday after he was cut from South Africa’s World Cup squad after breaking a bone in his right hand. The selectors decided to call for a replacement after Rhodes, the team’s talisman and widely regarded as the best fielder in the world, was ruled out for three weeks. Selector and former team mate Pat Symcox said: “If there was any way we could have accommodated Jonty, we would have done so. “But there was a good chance he would not have played a game for a month. We have got crunch games coming up right now. It’s really sad and it wasn’t easy. We couldn’t afford to risk the World Cup.” Rhodes’ exit came two days after Shane Warne, the game’s most successful leg spinner and its biggest draw card, pulled out of the World Cup after failing a drugs test. South Africa will ask the tournament organisers for permission to replace Rhodes, who retired from test cricket just over two years ago, with batsman Graeme Smith. Symcox said South Africa could not gamble on Rhodes after losing their first Group B game against West Indies. Even if he had returned in three weeks, he would still have missed the first round of the tournament and a minimum of four games. In his fourth World Cup and also his country’s most capped player in one-day internationals, he suffered the injury during South Africa’s 10-wicket win over Kenya in Group B on Wednesday. The 33-year-old, who has suffered previous hand trouble, was taken to hospital where an X-ray confirmed the break. He was immediately sent to Johannesburg to consult a specialist and then underwent surgery, with two pins inserted to stabilise the fracture. Rhodes had been hoping against hope to be retained in the squad. “It’s not the end of the world,” he said before the decision was announced. “There’s never a good time to break your hand at a World Cup but, if it has to happen, perhaps this is as good a time as any, because there’s time to recover before the Super Sixes,” he told Reuters at the team’s base in Potchefstroom. “I have no idea what the selectors are going to do. I have played with pain before and I’M Prepared to do it again.” Rhodes hurt his hand as he spilt a catch offered from Maurice Odumbe near the end of the Kenya innings at Potchefstroom. Rhodes, whose athleticism in the field is often said to be worth 30 runs per innings and who also plays a key role as a batting ‘finisher’, had had the same hand x-rayed after South Africa’s shock opening defeat to West Indies. That had showed severe bruising but no break. South Africa Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour said: “He must know that all of South Africa is feeling his pain, not just from the injury but losing the opportunity of taking South Africa to the final on March 23. “We hope he will not be lost to the game completely.it’s a virtual tragedy.” Rhodes, also a hockey international, retired from Test cricket in 2000 to concentrate on one-dayers and to spend more time at home with his wife and daughter. He has played 245 one-day internationals and 52 Tests, averaging just over 35 in both. His last Test came in August 2000. (Reuters)
