Jacques Kallis

[tonka115]

It was such a shame to see that on Wednesday that one of the all time cricket greats Jacques Kallis retired from all forms of international cricket. South Africa will miss him greatly and he will be a hard man to replace in that team. He has been a credit to cricket.

But, can he be classed in the same bracket as Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar etc...?

 

[stefan]

Is this a serious question? Kallis is up there with Sobers.

 

[tonka115]

Is this a serious question? Kallis is up there with Sobers.

I only asked the question because I have many friends that class themselves as serious cricket fans but they don't rate Jacques Kallis and I just wondered if other people thought like them.

Thankfully many people agree with me that he is a great.

Thanks for your post though.

 

[Samuels]

While there should be no doubt that both were great players, I think Sir Sobers was a better 'allrounder' for the fact that he played with that role for most part of his career while Kallis started off as an allrounder and gradually went on to become a batsman who could bowl. He was such a fine bowler in his early days and that is why those good looking numbers. We all know what a fine batsman he grew up to be in the last few years but he sacrificed his bowling for it. Interesting fact if both had played equal number of test matches, they would have ended up with similar numbers in batting. However, Sobers would have taken far more wickets than Kallis did if he had played equal number of tests to the latter. Despite a handsome strike rate and average for an allrounder, I would say Sir Garry Sobers did better to keep up the fitness level and remain the go to man for his skipper be it batting or bowling.

People might have started writing plenty of articles on the two greats comparing their level of expertise but I would like to recommend an article on the topic that was written a couple of years back.

History of Cricket: Sobers Versus Kallis - Who is the better all-rounder?

Not much has changed in Kallis' career from then on so I think it is still relevant as it was back in the day when it was written.

Everything said and done, the question here whether he was a 'great'? Well sure he was! Sobers might be awesome to have in the team but Kallis was bloody good too.

 

[greymatter776]

Kallis is one of the best all rounders to play the game,he had scored runs with the bat and also has been a good bowler.Always sure he is an all time great.

 

[War]

As i tried to suggest in my all-rounder thread a while back What is an all-rounder? - PlanetCricket Forums - Kallis is the best "batting all rounder" since Sobers, Imran Khan was the best "bowling all rounder since Sobers & Botham at his 1977-1982 peak, the most "complete" all-rounder since Sobers.

 

[Raghuchandra]

Why doubt about this??
Jacques Kallis is all time's great cricketer.