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Cricketing annals are filled with the names of stars, past and present. From Bradman to Tendulkar, from Tyson and Wes Hall to Allan Donald and Curtley Ambrose, from W G Grace and Garfield Sobers to Kapil Dev, Imran Khan and Richard Hadlee...

Those names tell a tale - they are all either batsmen, bowlers, or all-rounders of incredible skill and immense charisma.

In over a century of Test cricket, though, there have been only two players who have attained icondom purely on the strength of their fielding abilities. The first was Colin Bland, of the famed Springbok team of the late seixties and early seventies that found its collective career curtailed by a crippling anti-apartheid boycott.

And the second is Bland's countryman, Jonathan Rhodes.

Jonty, to put it simply, is a star - in the real sense of the term. In the sense that people will travel miles to see him field, as they will to see a Tendulkar or Lara bat, a Donald or Ambrose bowl.

The contemporary game, with its emphasis on good fielding, has several outstanding performers. And yet the diminutive Jonty towers above them all.

Why?

Jonty is an electric mover on the field - but so is an Azharuddin.

Jonty can make catches out of what, for any other fielder, is the one that flew too wide - but so can a Brian McMillan or a Mahanama.

Jonty Rhodes is unerringly accurate with his pick up and throwing - but the same can be said for half a dozen others.

So why is Rhodes special? Because he alone among his contemporaries is born to field. And one instance suffices to illustrate. Throw your mind back to the 1992 World Cup, the South Africa versus Pakistan clash.

Inzamam ul Haq, a destructive batsman at his best, is on song. His batting partner pushes the ball to the left of Jonty, and scampers a single to give Haq the strike. Jonty races in, picks the ball up...

Any other fielder would have shied at the stumps.

But within milliseconds, Jonty's fielding brain had programmed the data - Haq was on the verge of grounding his bat, Jonty himself had only a single stump to aim at, the time taken to aim and throw would allow the batsman to make it home safe...

So Jonty launches himself through the air, to break the stumps with ball in hand after a dive that would have done an Olympic champion proud.

That is Jonty Rhodes - the key to South Africa's incredible electricity in the field.

Come, chat with contemporary cricket's greatest fielder, live, on Rediff On The NeT.

On Thursday, November 7, 0930 hours IST (2100 hours PT, 1300 hours Hong Kong).

It's a date a cricket lover cannot afford to miss.