South African cricketer Jonty Rhodes confirmed on Friday morning that his international career had ended with his withdrawal from the South African Cricket World Cup squad.
Rhodes said that he would be playing for Gloucestershire for six months from April, but that he had no intention of trying to get back into international cricket.
”It’s time to get back to the real world,” said Rhodes. ”Don’t cry for me — I’ve had a great ride. I played 245 one-day internationals and have participated in four world cups.
”That’s a lot more than I would have thought possible when I left school and South Africa was still out of international cricket.”
Rhodes broke a bone in his right hand in the World Cup match against Kenya in Potchefstroom on Tuesday. He underwent surgery on Wednesday night and two pins were inserted into his hand.
On Thursday the selection committee announced that it had applied to the ICC technical committee for permission to replace Rhodes with Western Province’s Graeme Smith.
”It really was a difficult decision,” said selection chief Omar Henry after announcing the left-handed Smith as Rhodes’ replacement.
”We had to deal with all the role players, including Jonty of course, and try and be as objective as possible.” Henry added that giving Rhodes the bad news and been a difficult experience.
”Jonty was nowhere near his normally bubbly self when I told him. Understandably, he really was disappointed.
”But for the good of the team we wanted to have this over and done with as soon as possible.” Henry added that there was no guarantee that even after the three week recuperation period, Rhodes would be able to take his place in the side.
In stark contrast, Smith was delighted on hearing of his second chance. The 22 year old Smith was the surprise omission from the 15 man squad announced at Kingsmead after the first Test.
He responded to his axing by using every opportunity available to remind the selectors of his remarkable capacity for scoring runs and their oversight.
”When I phoned Smithy and told him that life was funny, he started laughing. He knew what the call was about and that we had selected him as the replacement. He was delighted.”
Apart from Smith, the only other strong candidate as far as Henry was concerned was Neil McKenzie.
”In the end we went for Graeme because he is a front-line batsman and there are a couple of guys in the squad who can bat in the middle order. A guy like Boeta Dippenaar for instance could move to the No 5 spot in the line up.”
Henry went on to say that he would discuss with the team management whether Smith would open the innings in the place of Gary Kirsten or bat at No 3 against New Zealand on Sunday at the Wanderers.
Smith’s inclusion of course depends on the ICC technical committee agreeing to the application to be made by the United Cricket Board on Friday.
It is extremely unlikely though that the committee, chaired by former South African wicketkeeper Dave Richardson and now the general manager of cricket at the ICC, would reject the application. – Sapa