Kallis to retire from Test Cricket

After a distinguished career in test cricket - Kallis will play his last test this week an then retire from all test and first class cricket - as announced by SA Cricket.   He will continue to play in the shorter version of the game for the foreseeable future.

The following is the report on this issue:-

"The South African cricket fraternity heaped praise upon all-rounder Jacques Kallis, who will retire from Test and first class cricket after the conclusion of the second Test against in India in Durban, it was announced on Wednesday.

Proteas coach Russell Domingo said the team will miss Kallis' presence.    "The impact Jacques has made on South African cricket has been immense, not just as a player but as a human being. I'm not sure we will ever see another player of that stature very soon," he said.

"Jacques' calmness, maturity and presence in the change room will sorely be missed and hopefully he will still be able to play a role in this team's success in the near future.

"He has ambitions of playing in the 2015 World Cup and it will be important for us to manage him accordingly so that he is in prime form leading into the tournament."

Cricket South Africa (CSA) President Chris Nenzani said Kallis' retirement marked a changing of the guard in the world game.

"We are truly entering a new era with three of the icons of the game --Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar and now our own Jacques Kallis --departing the Test arena within a short space of time," he said.

"It is a time for reflection not only on Jacques' enormous contribution to the game of cricket but also the legacy he leaves behind him."

Nenzani said Kallis had always risen above controversy and shown the game's best traditions of sportsmanship.

"To me the greatest legacy he leaves us is the Jacques Kallis Foundation which offers underprivileged South Africans of all persuasions the priceless benefit of a quality education and the opportunity to live their dreams on the cricket fields," he said.

"There are already a couple of youngsters from this programme who have gone on to represent SA Schools and SA under-19.

"Jacques, we thank you not just for what you have meant to South African cricket and indeed to the world of cricket but more particularly for the example you have set in being a model South African for our youth and future leaders."

CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat said that even though Kallis' retirement was inevitable, it was still a blow to South African cricket that it's greatest ever player and arguably the world's best all-rounder was leaving the Test stage.

"Jacques Kallis has simply been the Proteas rock of Gibraltar. He has been a stalwart for many years and their recent triumphs and greatness has been built around him," said Lorgat.

"He is a legend and his statistics speak volumes... Jacques has been ever present for the Proteas in the past 18 years and it is fitting that his final Test should be on the same ground as the one on which he made his debut against England back in 1995.

"Only Jacques would know how much strain his body can still take and while we will be very sad to see him walk off the Test arena for the last time, we can be buoyed by the knowledge that he wishes to represent us at the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup in Australasia."

He said it would be tremendously satisfying if Kallis and the Proteas were able to triumph at the 2015 World Cup.

"On behalf of the Cricket South Africa family, all our fans and indeed on behalf of the nation, I am privileged to extend our grateful thanks to Jacques for what he has contributed to South African cricket and in the process to nation building," said Lorgat.

"He has certainly played his part in making our cricket a truly national sport of winners. I look forward to see how in the years ahead we can engage his superb knowledge and experience. He is far too valuable and no doubt will have much to offer."

Wonder who they will bring into the squad to replace him.  My money is on Quinton de Kock - but we will never know whether that would happen,  since decisions are not based on merit,  but on political decision making. 

 It is indeed a pity that he decided to retire from test cricket - but he probably realized that he was not meeting his high standards in batting he set for himself.   Since he reached the 13 000 test runs he struggled with his batting and the only decent score he made since then was the 40 runs he scored in the past test.

As far as I could remember he said at the time he reached the 13 000 runs he was going to try and reach 14 000 test runs - but it was recently clear he would not get there without letting the team down repeatedly.

There can be no doubt that Kallis was one of the greatest cricketers ever - a class act - with a record for all-rounders that would be virtually impossible to equal or better.   

Sorry - duplication

 Mozart

In the commentary before the test this morning it was mentioned that there during he past few weeks some critical comments about Kallis's inability to score runs recently.   He did show some signs of better batting in the second innings on Monday, but that was the first time this year.

There is no doubt that he was one of the greatest - but the signs were there that he was losing  his mojo and the runs were just not coming anymore.

Another interesting question arose this morning during discussions and that was about Kallis's intentions to remain involved in the shorter versions of the game.   The question was raised - how is he going to keep match fit until 2015?   There are two local competitions for those versions of the game - but  they last only 3 months.  Then there is the IPL lasting a month.   Over the next 20 months Kallis will only play cricket for 8 months - which is just not going to keep him competitive.   Matter of fact the commentators said the decision to continue to play in 20Twenty and 50 over matches surprised them - they thought he may stop playing in those two versions and keep on playing test cricket.   

Be it as it may - I have a feeling that Kallis will not be in the shorter versions of the game in future and that he is not going to make the 2015 WC squad.  Could end u as a batting coach and cricket promoter for SA Cricket in future.  

Saffex

No debate on Kallis's abilities - but since he got the 13 000 test runs he was not showing any signs of scoring runs at all.   I think that since that time he batted in 12 test innings and scored a total of 176 runs.   That is just not good enough according to some critics.    I never saw any critical articles in the media - but for some comments of Gibbs in which he said that Kallis cannot pick and choose when and how he wants to play international cricket.   It is anybody's guess whether that was what the commentators referred to this morning.

Be is as it may - the situation is that he wanted to retire and that was his decision - nobody else's.

 "He and Sobers have been the best cricketers of all time........virtually impossible to replace"

I'd add Imran Khan to that list but even just bracketing Kallis with Sobers is a mighty honour.

Sobers averaged 57 in tests and his bowling average was 30 odd, Kallis averages 55 with a bowling average of 34, so Sobers tops the list with Kallis a close second.

Imran Khan was more of a bowling allrounder, with a great bowling average of 22 and a respectable batting average of 37 

Three of the best

The great man is bowing out in style...a solid performance in his last test match...hope he gets his 100...then Wynberg Boys, Maritzburg College,Selbourne and Pretoria Boys will benefit...an exta R50000 towards the combined charity.

When Sachin played his final game he made 74 runs...if Jacque makes a ton...he will be the only great who has done it on his last game.

Hope he makes 115+ runs -  that would take him to the third highest test runs scorer ever,  but I must admit that watching his performance over the last session was like watching paint dry.   Anyway he has another 37 runs to go  before achieving that and at the rate he is batting it should take about 20 overs tomorrow to achieve that one.   Hope he does achieve that though.

Interesting enough neither Kallis nor Smith is in the latest 20Twenty squad announced to play later this year.   The provisional squad announced is as follows:-

Proteas Blue Label Telecoms squad: Faf du Plessis (C), Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Henry Davids, Quinton de Kock, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Dean Elgar, Beuran Hendricks, Imran Tahir, Colin Ingram, Rory Kleinveldt, Ryan McLaren, David Miller, Morne Morkel,  Chris Morris, Justin Ontong, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Aaron Phangiso, Vernon Philander, Rilee Rossouw, Dale Steyn, Rusty Theron,  Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Vaughn van Jaarsveld, Dane Vilas and Hardus Viljoen,

I have highlighted the players who in recent T20 internationals and franchise games were top performers and hope they would make the squad.  Adams has been severely disappointing and so was Duminy   

 Kallis made just 115 runs and is now the third highest run scorer ever in world cricket.   He is just 78 runs behind the second highest run scorer - Ponting.

However  - he played 27 tests les than Ponting did - so his test average is much higher.   Wish they would convince Kallis to stay on for another three tests - but doubt whether that would happen. 

Yes Mike and what an emotional moment for those that love this game and especially for those close to Jacque...sad that his dad Henry is not around to see this.

I have been told when Jacque was a young kid at Wynberg Boys High, he was elected for WP schools and on that day he was out for a duck...his dad was so angry that he drove home to Pinelands. When Jacque asked where his dad was he was told he'd left...so Jacque had to walk home to Pinelands...dad Henry never put pressure on Jacque...his attitude to his son is always do your best (accolades are not important as long as you try and do your best) but in this case his old man felt that this was no where near his best obviously.

This finale should have been at Newlands, his home ground with more stable weather and larger crowds.