Jacques Kallis was a mighty all-round talent for South Africa for 18 years. After his dominant performances in England in 2012, he was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
Jacques Kallis played his 166th and final Test in 2013 and retired with 13,289 runs at 55.37 – with 45 centuries – and 292 wickets at 32.65. He also took 200 catches. His final ODI was in 2014.
The best, most classical and most durable all-rounder of his generation, and arguably of all time, was the mighty difference between South Africa and England in the summer of 2012. His presence gave the tourists an enviable balance, leaving England – who dared not bat their wicketkeeper Matt Prior at No.6 to accommodate an extra bowler – outgunned.
Kallis’s implacable alliance with Hashim Amla made possible England’s humiliation at The Oval, where his unbeaten 182 was as easy to miss as any such score could be. He also bowled with shrewdness and calculated venom, undermining England’s first innings with the vital wickets of Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell, and swallowed fast, flying catches at second slip.
His escape to private life is easier in Cape Town than it would be if home were Kolkata or Mumbai. “I prefer to play golf than watch cricket,” he admits. “I do whatever I can to make the game feel fresh again the next time I play.” And his willingness to muck in was exemplified when, as part of a team-bonding exercise before the England tour, Kallis – who loathes heights – jumped ten feet into an Alpine lake.
How much longer Kallis will devote to the game is, inevitably, uncertain. The calamitous ending to the career of Mark Boucher, his close friend, gave him reason to consider his future early in the England tour. But Gary Kirsten, long a team-mate and now the national coach, has a plan. After managing Sachin Tendulkar’s cricketing autumn while coaching India, Kirsten hoped he could persuade Kallis to play at the 2015 World Cup. It would be a record-equalling sixth, and he would be 39. Whenever he does decide to call it a day, cricket will have lost a true phenomenon.
