The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Kallis not yet in the league of extraordinary gentlemen

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Kallis not yet in the league of extraordinary gentlemen

Melbourne: He may boast of the best statistics of among all rounders but players refuse to place South Africa’s Jacques Kallis in the league of extraordinary gentlemen — India’s Kapil Dev, West Indies’ Sir Gary Sobers, Pakistan’s Imran Khan or England’s Ian Botham.

Kallis has scored 9801 runs in 125 Tests at an average of 55.06 and taken 245 wickets at a highly respectable 30.92. He has scored 30 centuries, but never made a double hundred.

The figures are well ahead of Sobers, who made 8032 runs at 57.78 in 93 Tests and took 235 wickets at 34.03, to be widely regarded as the game’s greatest allrounder.

But Kallis is a “selfish cricketer,” feels Keith Stackpole, who scored seven tons in 43 Tests as an opener.

“He doesn’t rate against players such as Gary Sobers, Imran Khan, Keith Miller, Adam Gilchrist, Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev and Ian Botham,” he was quoted as saying by the Herald Sun.

“You watch him bat and you are left with the feeling he bats for his average. And you ask yourself, ’Would I have wanted to play with him?’. The answer is no because he plays for himself,” he added.

Former Test quick Rodney Hogg, who played against Sobers, Imran, Hadlee, Botham, Kapil, Malcolm Marshall and Clive Rice, feels Kallis lacks against Australians.

“Kallis is a flat-track bully, who dishes it out to the minnows like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe but goes missing against the Australians,” Hogg said.

“Sobers played more than half of his Tests against England and Australia, whereas Kallis has picked up around 1000 runs and 40 wickets against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. They shouldn’t count.

“Kallis is a player at age 33 that we will really target in this Test series. And he is boring to watch as a bowler, just constantly bowling outside off-stump,” he added. — PTI

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