Jonty Rhodes’ long innings as fielding coach of Mumbai Indians has come to an end after nine years because he has decided to focus on personal business. The three-time IPL champion has named James Pamment as the fielding coach of the side for IPL 2018.
MI owner Akash Ambani termed South African Rhodes contribution as “invaluable and immeasurable’’. He further said: “Jonty has been a pillar of strength and energy for MI. We respect his decision and wish him the best for the future. Jonty will always be a part of the MI family for life.’’
Rhodes’ replacement, the 49-year-old Pamment has been employed with New Zealand Cricket as fielding specialist and its development programmes. MI said that it was impressed by his work with Northern Districts in the Champions League Twenty 20 league of 2014. The UK-born New Zealander has been head coach of Northern District.
“It’s an honour for me to join the ranks of MI. It will be a great challenge and at the same time a privilege to fulfil the duties of a role that was held by someone like Jonty. He has instilled a brilliant work culture among the players, on and off the field, and the results are out there for everyone to see. MI is a champion outfit and I am grateful to the team’s ownership for giving me the opportunity,” has said Pamment.
On his part Rhodes has said: “It has been a remarkable journey with MI, one that I will cherish all my life. Over the last nine years, MI has set sporting benchmarks both on and off the field, and personally it has been fantastic to work with a set of individuals like Sachin [Tendulkar], Rohit [Sharma], Anil [Kumble], Ricky [Ponting], Mahela [Jayawardene]and all the support staff and players over the years.’’
Pamment represented Yorkshire in age group tournament before migrating to New Zealand in 1988. He played for Auckland for four years from 1993 and was High Performance Coach Bay of Plenty Cricket Association from 2006 to 2009.
