JACQUES KALLIS - SOUTH AFRICA

Player profile

Full name Jacques Henry Kallis
Born October 16, 1975, Pinelands, Cape Town, Cape Province
Current age 31 years 192 days
Major teams South Africa, Africa XI, Cape Cobras, Glamorgan, ICC World XI, Middlesex, Western Province
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm fast-medium






Career statistics





Test debut
South Africa v England at Durban - Dec 14-18, 1995

Last Test
South Africa v Pakistan at Cape Town - Jan 26-28, 2007

ODI debut
South Africa v England at Cape Town - Jan 9, 1996

Last ODI
Australia v South Africa at Gros Islet - Apr 25, 2007

Twenty20 Int. debut
South Africa v New Zealand at Johannesburg - Oct 21, 2005

Last Twenty20 Int.
Australia v South Africa at Brisbane - Jan 9, 2006

First-class span
1993/94 - 2006/07

List A span
1994/95 - 2006/07

Twenty20 span
2003/04 - 2005/06








Notes

ICC Test Player of the Year 2005
ICC Player of the Year 2005




Profile

In an era of fast scoring and high-octane entertainment, Jacques Kallis is a throwback - and an astonishingly effective one at that - to Test cricket's more sedate age, when one's wicket was a commodity to be guarded with one's life, and runs were but an accidental by-product of crease occupation. After a distinctly ordinary start to his Test career, Kallis blossomed into arguably the world's leading batsman, with a defensive technique second-to-none, and the adhesive qualities of a Cape Point limpet. Generally a placid and undemonstrative man, he nailed down the crucial No. 3 position in the South African batting order after a number of players had been tried and discarded, and his stock rose exponentially from that moment. In 2005, he was honoured as the ICC's Test and overall Player of the Year, after a run of performances against West Indies and England that marked him out as the biggest scalp in the modern game. His batting is not for the romantic - a Kallis century tends to be a soulless affair, with ruthless efficiency taking precedence over derring-do, and he has never quite dispelled the notion that he is a selfish cricketer, with more interest in his average than his team's position. But whatever it is that makes him tick, it has propelled him to the top of the all-time South African Test batting charts, and until the emergence of Andrew Flintoff, he was by some distance the leading allrounder in the world game, capable of swinging the ball sharply at surprising pace off a relaxed run-up. He is a strong man with powerful shoulders and a deep chest and he has the capacity to play a wide array of attacking strokes, if not always the inclination. To add to all this, he is a fine slip fielder.

Missed the first Test of South Africa's tour of Australia at the end of 2005 with an elbow problem, struggled facing Brett Lee at Melbourne and was hampered by the injury in making a patient and crucial 111 in the first innings at Sydney. Added a slow, unbeaten half-century in the second innings as South Africa contemplated their declaration and ended with an average of 61.33. Stood in as captain for the gut-wrenching third Test in a return series at home recently, and was the lead South African batsman in a bowler-dominated contest. A fighting 114 out of a total of 267 at Durban highlighted his series return of 227 runs and seven wickets. With Graeme Smith ruled out for 12 weeks with an ankle injury, Kallis was named captain for three ODIs and a Twenty20 against Zimbabwe at home ahead of the Champions Trophy in October.

Against India at home at the end of the 2006, Kallis topped the ODI run tally on either side with 168 at 84, including an unbeaten hundred, but managed only one fifty in the Test series. Against Pakistan just after that, Kallis continued to amaze with his all-round feats. He was the leading run-scorer of the series and his bowling was vital in a weaker attack at Newlands. In the ODIs, he hit two crucial half-centuries and topped the averages.



-Andrew Miller/Jamie Alter February 2007