I have seen great players like Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara, Kumar Sangakarra, Shane Warne, Muralitharan, Wasim Akram etc play at their peak and it has been a tremendous experience. In my view the most talented batman that I have seen play is Brian Lara. But I also think that the player that qualifies in my book as the best cricketer of this generation never gets enough credit. That player is the great Jaques Kallis. 45 test hundreds at an average above 55 ( mostly in very tough batting conditions ), 292 test wickets and a trillion slip catches must be enough to win the debate in his favor and I have not included his stellar ODI stats. What player is the greatest in your opinion?
Quote:What player is the greatest in your opinion?
in the last 2 decades....Lara!
Why Lara? The rest of the players were surrounded with other good/great players in their respective teams. That in itself is a great motivator for any player. Lara on the other hand, for most of his career carried the WI team! The only person he had during most of his career that could be counted was Shiv. Yes, there was Walsh, Ambrose, etc early in his career.
Kallis gets overlooked because he was boring as hell. And unlike other slow accumulators (Dravid, Shiv, Steve Waugh, Sangas, Cook etc), he didn't have those iconic knocks. Waugh took down the WI dynasty, Dravid took on the Aussies, Shiv put up with a team full of clowns. Kallis was just...there. He didn't produce those HOLY CRAP heroic all-rounder moments of a Gilchrist or Flintoff. He never felt like an underdog. He just kinda felt...there.
When I think Kallis, I think him hitting centuries vs Australia and then Ricky Ponting replying, tit-for-tat, with a better match winning one. Kallis did have some iconic knocks, though; his 2 centuries in a test to save the series vs India (the 2011 match in which he famously batted with a side-strain). Then there's his 201 not out (the “four minute ovation†match) and his maiden test ton in 1997, where he held off the Aussies for over six hours (“We tried everything against this guy, but can't find a weakness,†Steve Waugh said after the game), a match which would epitomize his style and role.
As always, Trini, you provide excellent insights and analysis. I think your point about Kallis being an accumulator is a fair one. He was so remarkably consistent and a dogged and determined cricketer.
As fans, I think we often gravitate more towards the flashier players. It is for this reason I think a large majority of fans would take the likes of Sehwag and Warner ahead of Cook. The former scored at prolific rates while Cook is a blocker that grinds the bowlers down and sets out to bat the day out. With Cook, and the same goes for Kallis, it is a war of attrition. What makes them both so special is that more often than not they win those battles.
Your point about those iconic moments is particularly poignant. Flintoff's overall numbers pale in comparison to Kallis but Freddy had a number of those flashes of brilliance that turned a game on its head in one session.
One thing that perhaps gets lost is just how fast Kallis bowled - routinely 88 mph and upwards. As he aged, those speeds obviously dropped, but is he the last of the genuine great fast-bowling Test all-rounders?
I never understand this bias of cricket fans towards isolated moments of brilliance. I know that Tendulkar or Lara or for that matter even Ponting played more innings where they bashed the opposition into submission but how can anyone say that the consistency of Kallis was any less impressive than the agression of others? Plus the bloke was a genuine fast bowler for most of his career and a brilliant slip catcher too. I have never seen a cricketer as complete as him.
