IN LOVE WITH INDIA
TOP: Cricket hero Jonty and wife Melanie’s daughter India and son Nathan Jon were both born in India. ABOVE: In December Ross and Daniella, Jonty’s children from his first marriage, joined their dad on holiday in Agra, India. RIGHT: Proud dad with son Nathan. AMILIES are like cricket teams,” a caption alongside a picture of the family reads. “It’s easy to be happy when you’re winning but when times are tough a team that’s first and foremost happy will stand together and come out as winners.”
And if photos are anything to go by, it’s pretty clear this little band of four is a winning team. One snap taken just after New Year’s Day at a food stall in India shows a barefoot mom and a dad in flipflops both beaming with their cute kids nestled in their arms.
Jonty Rhodes is, of course, the dad in question. Beloved by South Africans for his acrobatic fielding skills in his days as a Protea, he’s bowled over by this vast subcontinent.
He’d been the fielding coach of the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for nine years when in December he called it a day to focus on personal business.
India’s become a second home to him so it’s little surprise Jonty and his wife, Melanie, named their daughter India.
She was born in Mumbai in 2015 and last year Nathan Jon joined the family. Like his elder sister, he was welcomed into the world via a water birth.
At the time Melanie wrote on Instagram, “@jontyrhodes8 wasn’t present at the birth like we obviously would’ve wanted as Nathan Jon was born in Mumbai one hour before Jonty had to warm the MI team up for the IPL 2017 finals.”
His team ended up lifting the IPL trophy for the third time, just hours after the little boy was born.
But the proud dad was present when Nathan (now eight months) started switching to solids last October. Melanie shared a cute video on Instagram to capture this moment. There’s also an adorable vid of the doting dad cooing to his son as he wriggles in delight on a table.
TCOMPILED BY LARA ATSON HE Rhodeses are at their happiest exploring India by train, on bicycle or on foot and their many followers happily travel along with them in cyberspace thanks to the photos Jonty (48) loves to share on Instagram with the hashtag #incredibleindia.
On a recent trip to northern Uttarakhand he was seen on a dirt track, carrying his son on his back and his daughter on his shoulders. “Get outdoors,” he captioned the pic. “If you aren’t walking past you can’t get invited for masala chai.”
Jonty and Melanie are free spirits. They live for the moment, are accomplished surfers and avid practitioners of yoga.
Like her parents, little India loves water and enjoys going on adventures. Melanie recently shared on Instagram how their daughter, whom they nicknamed Mowgli after the Jungle Book character, took the lead when the family went exploring the streets in Uttarakhand.
“India instructs the way and we just go. Wherever it takes us,” she wrote.
In another photo which Jonty shared with his 131 000 Instagram followers