FIRST PUBLISHED IN CRICBUZZ
The answer was always the same. There was never any hesitation because it was indisputable, undebatable. Everyone knew the answer much like everyone knows the sky is blue. Everyone, that is, with even the most casual awareness of the game called cricket. The answer was Garfield Sobers. The question? Who is the greatest all-round cricketer of them all?
That was until the blossoming of South Africa's greatest player. Jacques Kallis, who has decided to hang up his helmet after almost 20 years as a stellar performer in international cricket, has conjured up a cricketing miracle by causing many to pause when confronted by the aforementioned enquiry. Mind you, there are still many who consider it blasphemy to have any other name before that of the Barbadian National Hero, but Kallis has racked up such unbelievable numbers over his long career that he demands mention.
Ponder this: in 166 Tests the South African scored 13289 runs at 55.37 with 45 hundreds, and in 328 ODIs his tally was 11579 runs at 44.36 with 17 centuries. Those are incredible numbers by themselves but when you add his 292 Test wickets at 32.65, 273 ODI wickets, 200 catches in Tests and 131 in ODIs then it's clear that comparisons to Sobers are not fatuous.
Their attitude to batting could hardly be more dissimilar. Sobers was a forceful, virtuoso performer who always sought to dominate the opposition. He was a batsman of very sound technique, but one who subscribed to the mantra probably first espoused by Sir Donald Bradman, that technique should be the servant and not the master. Runs should be sought, not only in large numbers but quickly as well.
Kallis, on the other hand, is more restrained, more introspective, more steadfast. One critique he has had to endure over the years is the accusation that his batting is one-paced, selfish; that he played too much within himself and was too reluctant to increase the tempo in search of wresting the advantage for his team. One sensed that though he had the ability to, he shied away from imposing himself upon the opposition like Tendulkar or Lara often did.
In 2007 at the World Cup in the West Indies, Australian captain Ricky Ponting, perhaps in an attempt at what Steve Waugh termed "mental disintegration," prior to their semi-final game against South Africa latched on to this perceived drawback in Kallis' batting and suggested that their aim was to get him to the crease early. His pedestrian 63-ball 48 in South Africa's previous game against Australia was thought to have contributed to South Africa's defeat.
On the morning of the game South Africa batted first and Graeme Smith fell early, so Ponting did get Kallis at the crease early. Quite out of character Kallis charged down the wicket at Glen McGrath's eighth delivery, did the same to the ninth, and had his off stump disturbed. Ponting had issued a challenge and it seemed plain that Kallis was intending to stuff his words back down his throat. In a career marked by steadiness and imperturbability, that was an aberration that he must have regretted.
In terms of sheer skill Kallis' batting could hardly be surpassed. His defence appeared as impenetrable as Dravid's, and though he sometimes exhibited a reluctance to break free, he showed he possessed all the shots whenever he chose to shed the shell in which he restricted himself.
But that is not a point that should be stressed too greatly; South Africa's batting, during much of Kallis' time, was not the sturdiest in the game. He grew into the sheet anchor role out of necessity rather than for the selfish reasons of which he has been accused. Without his resoluteness South Africa would have had a significantly poorer record.
Kallis had the third highest aggregate of all batsmen in Tests, and of batsmen with over 5000 Test runs he had the eighth highest average. By itself, those figures would represent a startling Test career. But Kallis also captured almost 300 wickets bowling fast, at times as fast as any other pacer in the game, and one could reasonably assume that his bowling figures would have been even more impressive had he batted at nine or ten instead of three or four.
What this means is that Kallis could also have sustained a Test career based solely on his bowling. In the entire history of the game there are only a handful of players of whom this could be said.
Kallis' 23 Man of the Match awards in Tests are the most by any player. And it speaks to the value of the champion all-rounder to South Africa's success over the years. He was his side's most adhesive batsman for well over a decade, and while he remained at the crease, South Africa never lost hope, whether they were chasing victory or seeking safe harbour.
The broad shouldered right-hander has left a hole in the South African line-up that cannot be adequately filled. There is currently no player anywhere that is able to perform as expertly as he can in so many areas of the game.
Comparisons between players of different eras are a staple of sports discussions. Such deliberations are useful and often enjoyable exercises though any kind of resolution is impossible.
No one can really tell how Kallis, had he been around in Sobers' time, would have matched up against the opposition Sobers faced. And though one strongly suspects he would still have been excellent, no one knows how well Sobers would have done in this era. Only a foolishly brave man, however, would offer arguments in disagreement with this assertion: Jacques Kallis was the best all-round cricketer of his time.
