Biography

Jonty Rhodes Height, Weight, Age, Family, Facts, Spouse, Biography

Jonty Rhodes Quick Info
Height 5 ft 9 in
Weight 75 kg
Date of Birth July 27, 1969
Zodiac Sign Leo
Spouse Melanie Wolf

Jonty Rhodes is a South African cricket coach, commentator, and former professional cricketer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest fielders, if not the greatest, to have graced the sport. He had represented his country in the longest versions of the sport (Tests and ODIs), as a middle-order batter, between February 1992 and February 2003. He had ended up with 2,532 runs in 52 test matches at an average of 35.66 and 5,935 runs in 245 matches at an average of 35.11. In the South African domestic circuit, he had played for Natal (1988-89–1997-98) and KwaZulu-Natal (1998-99–2002-03) across both formats. He had retired from test match cricket in 2000, from ODI cricket in early 2003, and from all forms of cricket in the middle of 2003 after a farewell season in English county cricket with Gloucestershire County Cricket Club. Post-retirement, he has worked as a TV analyst and commentator across the world. He has also held several coaching jobs such as the fielding coach of the South African national cricket team, the fielding coach of the IPL (Indian Premier League) teams Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab, and the assistant coach of the Kenyan national cricket team.

Born Name

Jonathan Neil Rhodes

Nick Name

Jonty, The Maritzburg Mamba

Jonty Rhodes as seen in an Instagram Post in March 2020
Jonty Rhodes as seen in an Instagram Post in March 2020 (Jonty Rhodes / Instagram)

Sun Sign

Leo

Born Place

Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Residence

South Africa

Nationality

South African

 

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Occupation

Cricket Coach, Commentator, Professional Cricketer (Retired)

Jonty Rhodes as seen in an Instagram Post in October 2018
Jonty Rhodes as seen in an Instagram Post in October 2018 (Jonty Rhodes / Instagram)

Family

  • Father – Digby Rhodes
  • Mother – Tish Rhodes
  • Siblings – Clinton Rhodes (Brother)
  • Others – Cuan McCarthy (Ex-Uncle-in-Law) (Former Cricketer) (d. August 2000)

Batting

Right-Handed

Bowling

Right-Arm Medium

Role

Middle-Order Batter

Jersey Number

8 – One Day International (ODI)

Build

Athletic

Height

5 ft 9 in or 175.5 cm

Weight

75 kg or 165.5 lbs

Girlfriend / Spouse

Jonty has dated –

  1. Kate McCarthy (1994–2013) – Jonty had married Kate McCarthy on April 16, 1994, and they have 2 children together – a daughter named Daniella Rhodes and a son named Ross Rhodes. The couple had parted ways in 2013.
  2. Melanie Wolf (2014-Present) – Jonty got married to Melanie Wolf in 2014 and they have 2 children together – a daughter named India Jeanne Rhodes (b. April 2015) and a son named Nathan Rhodes (b. 2017). India Jeanne Rhodes was so named because she was born in a hospital in Mumbai and also because Jonty had developed a deep love for India by then, inspired by the country’s culture, spirituality, traditions, and heritage that he had experienced over his many visits to the country.

Jonty Rhodes and Melanie Wolf, as seen in October 2014
Jonty Rhodes and Melanie Wolf, as seen in October 2014 (Jonty Rhodes / Instagram)

Race / Ethnicity

White

Hair Color

Blonde

Eye Color

Blue

Sexual Orientation

Straight

Distinctive Features

  • Toned physique
  • Overgrown, tousled hair
  • Cheerful smile
  • Clean-shaven look

Jonty Rhodes as seen in an Instagram Post in December 2017
Jonty Rhodes as seen in an Instagram Post in December 2017 (Jonty Rhodes / Instagram)

Jonty Rhodes Facts

  1. Jonty was as adept at field hockey as cricket and was heavily involved with the former sport in his teens and early 20s. He was so good that he had been selected to South Africa’s squad that had attempted to qualify for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. He had also been called up for trials for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics but had been ruled out due to a hamstring injury. His daughter, Daniella Rhodes, had also taken up field hockey and was highly proficient at the university level.
  2. During the 1993 Hero Cup, in an ODI match against the West Indies, he had taken 5 catches which was the then world record for the most number of dismissals effected by a fielder (other than a wicketkeeper) in ODI cricket.
  3. He holds the record of being the first South African cricketer to have taken 100 catches in ODI cricket. Only 30 other male cricketers had achieved this rare feat, as of January 2024.
  4. He was a part of the South African squads that had crashed out at the semi-final stage of the ICC Cricket World Cup in both 1992 and 1999, the first 2 times that South Africa had reached that stage of the tournament. These matches, that had both ended in very close and distressing defeats, began a series of heartbreaking exits from ICC tournaments (ICC Cricket World Cup, ICC Champions Trophy, ICC World T20) that earned the South African cricket team the tag of ‘chokers’, a moniker that the team had still not been able to shake off, as of January 2024.
  5. In 1999, much before Ireland had achieved full-member status, he had spent about 3 weeks in the country as a sponsored professional, played a series of one-day matches for the country, and had also held coaching clinics for cricketers of all age groups.
  6. The same year, he had been voted as one of the ‘Wisden Cricketers of the Year’, selected by the annual publication Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack which is regarded as the ‘Bible of Cricket’.
  7. Jonty was also part of the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup squad for South Africa where their team management had ineptly misread the Duckworth-Lewis Method (an often controversial system of readjusting targets in rain-affected matches) rules which had resulted in their final group stage match, against Sri Lanka, ending up in a tie, when a win would have helped them qualify for the next stage of the tournament. It was a traumatic moment for South African cricket as this was the first time that the country had hosted/co-hosted the tournament and the 3rd time in 4 editions of the tournament that they had crashed out in highly unusual circumstances. On a personal level, an injury in the early stages of the tournament had forced Jonty to withdraw from the event and soon after, announce his retirement from international cricket.
  8. After his retirement from cricket, he had been employed by Standard Bank, a major South African banking and financial services group, as an accounting executive. He was heavily involved with the bank’s cricket sponsorship in South Africa.
  9. In 2004, he was voted at number 29 in a poll to identify the ‘Top 100 Great South Africans’, an initiative that was part of Great South Africans, a TV series that was aired by SABC3, a free-to-air TV network that is owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).
  10. In April 2013, owing to his deep connection with India, South African Tourism had appointed him as their brand ambassador for India. In 2021, he has conferred upon an honorary doctorate by Invertis University, a private university in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India.
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Featured Image by Jonty Rhodes / Instagram

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