Cricketing giant

Sir — This refers to the report, “Kallis’ super swansong puts India in spot” (December 30). Jacques Kallis, unarguably the greatest all-rounder of his era, has pulled the curtains on his illustrious career, in a grand fashion by hitting a century in his last innings. No pomp and show was organised for the last Test match, in contrast to what we saw in Sachin Tendulkar’s case. 

Kallis let his bat do the talking. It was poetic justice for this gentleman-cricketer, who never chased any records, that he closed his innings as the third-highest run maker, piping Rahul Dravid by just one mark.

Kallis played two Tests less than Ricky Ponting and scored 89 runs lesser than him. He also played 32 fewer tests than Tendulkar and scored 2,632 runs and six centuries lesser than him. Had Kallis stretched his career to about 200 tests, he may have scored the highest number of runs as well. Add to this his 292 wickets and 200 catches, and he would have been the best cricketer of his times. 

like former West Indies cricketer Gerry Sobers, who could walk into any team as a pure batsman or bowler, Kallis too, with his all-round performance, was always counted as two players rolled into one.