Last week saw the retirement of Jacques Henry Kallis from test cricket - the greatest allrounder, if not player, to ever play the game. Kallis? The best player ever? Nonsense, what about X when they smashed England everywhere, or Y when they tore through Australia's batting?
Kallis is not only the third leading run-scorer (ahead of Brian Lara and Alan Border), the proud holder of 292 wickets (more than the likes of Michael Holding and Richie Benaud), and 200 catches, second-highest in the outfield (ahead of Mark Waugh and Ricky Ponting); he also saw a rise in South African cricket from a country recently re-introduced to test cricket, to the number one side in the world, nurturing talent such as A.B De Villiers and Hashim Amla to mirror his technique along the way. He has been a rock in a sea of flamboyance, and his allround contribution to cricket is unparalleled and statistically will never be matched.
My only hope is that he continues into the coaching profession so will may see something that remotely resembles him, be it a perfectly executed cover drive, or a solid defence in the face of adversity.
The reason that he will never be truly spoken of as the phenomenal player he was, is that he didn't excite the way other players did, never completely dominating the opposition in the way a Viv Richards innings could, or a fiery spell from Curtly Ambrose. As testament to this he scored his first double-hundred aged 35, because once he had got to a 100 his job was done and he didn't need to showboat anymore. He was every bit a team player whether people remember that or not.
Anyone however can write an ode to Kallis. What is highlighted to me is the comparison between his career, and England's brief stint as the No.1 ranked test side. They got there by playing sensible, at times attritional, cricket. Bowling dry and batting time, typified by the success of Jonathan Trott and Tim Bresnan. Nothing flashy, just getting the job done.
Yet when they reached the summit of the cricketing mountain, they were told to 'play like champions'. To quote Gore Vidal 'It is not enough to succeed, others must fail'. Suddenly it was not enough to simply be better than the opponents, they now had to irrefutably show it. Kallis proved this a fallacy, yet England players that didn't meet the new, unprovoked, entertainment criteria were lambasted and disposed of (see Nick Compton and James Taylor).
England must learn from Kallis and stop trying to imitate others, but simply play like themselves and hope winning is enough for everyone else.
