Kallis- An Unsung Legend

Jacques Henry Kallis has bid adieu to test cricket after 18 years of playing at the highest level. He will still continue playing ODI’s for South Africa till the 2015 world cup to be played in Australia and New Zealand.

Many of the cricket pundits argue that Kallis is the greatest all-rounder to have ever played this game and easily amongst the all-time greats.

Let us do some number crunching before coming to any conclusions.

Let us first see Kallis’s combined batting and bowling records in all forms of cricket

Format	Matches	Runs	Average	Centuries	Wickets	Bowl Average	MoM	MoS
Test	166	13289	55.75	45	292	32.53	23	9
ODI’s	325	11574	44.86	17	273	31.79	32	6
T20	25	666	35.05	0	12	27.75	2	0
Overall	516	25529	49.73	62	577	32.08	57	15

He is the only player in the history of the game to have scored more than 25,000 runs and taken more than 500 wickets. Add to that more than 250 catches surely places him on the top of all-rounders list to have played cricket.

Now let us have an apple to apple comparison of Kallis with some other great all-rounders of cricket.

All-rounders in Test cricket with minimum 2000 runs and 100 wickets. 

Player	Matches	Runs	Average	Wkts	Bowl Average	Avg Diff
Gary Sobers (WI)	93	8032	57.78	235	34.03	23.74
Jacques Kallis (SA)	166	13289	55.75	292	32.53	23.22
Imran Khan (Pak)	88	3807	37.69	362	22.81	14.88
Keith Miller (Aus)	55	2958	36.97	170	22.97	13.99
Shaun Pollock (SA)	108	3781	32.31	421	23.11	9.19
Trevor Goddard (SA)	41	2516	34.46	123	26.22	8.23
Tony Greig (Eng)	58	3599	40.43	141	32.2	8.23
Ian Botham (Eng)	102	5200	33.54	383	28.4	5.14
Richard Hadlee (NZ)	86	3124	27.16	431	22.29	4.86
Shakib Al Hasan (Ban)	32	2105	36.92	113	32.62	4.3
Chris Cairns (NZ)	62	3320	33.53	218	29.4	4.13
Wilfred Rhodes (Eng)	58	2325	30.19	127	26.96	3.22
Kapil Dev (Ind)	131	5248	31.05	434	29.64	1.4
Trevor Bailey (Eng)	61	2290	29.74	132	29.21	0.52

If we have a look at the players in the above list, Kallis is only second to the great Sir Gary Sobers if the comparison is based on the difference of batting and bowling averages of the all-rounders.

Note: Batting average should be as high as possible and the reverse should be for bowling average. So the average difference between both the averages should be as high as possible in order to make one a great all-rounder.

It is also said that a true test of a player is seen in overseas conditions. So let us have a look at some comparisons of all-rounders in overseas conditions.

All-rounders in Test cricket away from home (1000 runs, 100 wickets) 

Player	Matches	Runs	Average	Wkts	Bowl Avg	Avg Diff
Jacques Kallis (SA)	78	6254	53.91	127	35.3	18.6
Gary Sobers (WI)	49	3957	50.73	128	33.96	16.76
Shaun Pollock (SA)	49	1859	36.45	186	25.68	10.76
Imran Khan (Pak)	50	2267	33.83	199	25.76	8.07
Richard Hadlee (NZ)	43	1623	25.35	230	21.72	3.63
Ian Botham (Eng)	43	2231	31.87	157	29.63	2.24
Richie Benaud (Aus)	34	1123	24.95	144	24.35	0.6

In overseas conditions Kallis tops the list of all-rounders with a difference of batting and bowling average of 18.6

A player who performs well and helps his team win is considered great. Let us look at some statistics of some all-rounders depicting their performance in their team’s victories.

Top all-rounders in Test win (1000 runs and 50 wickets) 

Player	Mts	Runs	Avg	Wkts	Bowl Avg	Avg Diff
Gary Sobers (WI)	31	3097	77.42	104	24.04	53.37
Jacques Kallis (SA)	81	6264	62.01	182	24.31	37.7
Tony Greig (Eng)	17	1064	53.2	59	20.84	32.35
Sanath Jayasuriya (SL)	40	2801	48.29	54	24.38	23.9
Keith Miller (Aus)	31	1779	43.39	113	19.6	23.78
Ian Botham (Eng)	33	1951	43.35	172	20.09	23.25
Shaun Pollock (SA)	49	1427	32.43	223	18.3	14.13
Chaminda Vaas (SL)	43	1388	35.58	166	22.63	12.95
Daniel Vettori (NZ)	33	1340	34.35	127	21.92	12.43
Andrew Flintoff (Eng)	30	1572	39.3	92	29	10.3

In this list also Kallis stands at the 2^nd position after Sir Gary Sobers with an average difference of 37.7

In the modern era many great all-rounders have played all forms of cricket. So below is a comparison of some of the greats with their combined record in all forms of the game. 

Player	Matches	Runs	Average	Wickets	Bowl Average	Avg Diff
Jacques Kallis	516	25529	49.73	577	32.08	17.65
Imran Khan	263	7516	35.45	544	24.08	11.36
Shane Watson	260	9484	37.93	266	29.39	8.54
Steve Waugh	493	18496	41.65	287	35.56	6.09
Lance Klusener	220	5482	37.8	272	32.29	5.51
Shaun Pollock	423	7386	28.73	829	23.73	5
Shakib Al Hasan	187	6321	33.62	307	29.54	4.07
Andrew Flintoff	227	7315	31.39	400	29.23	2.16
Ian Botham	218	7313	29.72	528	28.44	1.28

As we can see that Kallis tops the list if combined records of all forms of cricket is taken with the highest average difference of 17.65 over 516 international matches.

If we were to compare Kallis with the highest test run getters than there also we can see that Kallis has been a valued performer for his team. He is the 3^rd highest test run getter and along with that also taken almost 300 wickets and 200 catches. 

Player	Matches	Runs	Average	Centuries	Wickets	Bowl Average
Sachin Tendulkar	200	15921	53.78	51	46	54.17
Ricky Ponting	168	13378	51.85	41	5	55.2
Jacques Kallis	166	13289	55.75	45	577	32.08
Rahul Dravid	164	13288	52.31	36	1	39
Brian Lara	131	11953	52.88	34	0	–
Chanderpaul	153	11219	51.93	29	9	98.11
Allan Border	156	11174	50.56	27	39	39.1
Steve Waugh	168	10927	51.06	32	92	37.44
Mahela Jayawardena	138	10806	49.56	31	6	49.5
Kumar Sangakara	117	10486	56.98	33	0	–
Sunil Gavaskar	125	10122	51.12	34	1	206

Recently the little master Sachin Tendulkar retired from international cricket after playing for 24 years and there were huge celebrations and hoopla around the event. Many cricket pundits labelled it as unnecessary and termed it as marketing gimmick. Now that Kallis has announced his retirement and we do not see any such fuss, their point seems more than correct.

But in favour of Sachin’s case we can say that he was a sub-continent (Indian) player whose fans are very emotional about the sport and consider it as a religion more than a spot. Also Sachin was worshipped like a God in India and hence such events had taken place. South African people are not that emotional and so they have decided to give Kallis a comparatively silent farewell.

Kallis has always been the unsung hero in cricket and we sometimes feel that he has not received the due credit he should have got. More often than not he got overshadowed by Sachin, Ponting, Dravid and Lara. But if we go by the numbers, he is by no means a less player and is definitely the greatest all-rounder to have played the game of cricket. He has been a great role model and ambassador for South African cricket and will always be remembered.