Jacques Kallis – The Tainted Superstar

Orin Davidson
Jacques Kallis has been giving the South Africa cricket board a big headache and now that the national team has nothing to show for hosting the Twenty/20 World Cup, it is becoming a migraine for those embattled officials.

Jacques Kallis

The country's most prolific player has been at odds with the United Cricket Board of South Africa long before the first ball was bowled at the Wanderers stadium last week.

It was after he was omitted from the team to ease his workload, according to the board, in view of the seemingly more important engagements in a torturously packed itinerary in the next 18 months.

But Kallis did not agree, he felt it was a slap in the face to be sidelined from a global competition, of which the jury is still out on whether it will ever be classed as a major world tournament.

He promptly handed back the vice captaincy to the Board and made it clear he will be considering his future with team, as a result.

Now you know why Gerald Majola, the Board's Chief Executive Officer must be close to having sleepless nights because the double whammy of fearing the loss of their best player ever, after not playing him in a team that could not even reach the semi-finals of a competition they are hosting, is bound to raise serious questions about the organization's credibility.

But as good as he may be, Kallis is not exactly the most congenial of players around. He has 8,430 Test runs and 9,144 at ODI level but carries around a degree of arrogance that would not endear him much to fans or officials at home or abroad.
Which is why there will be the tendency to feel somewhat sympathetic to the Board in the ongoing spat, although they could've handled it better.

In any pro- active sports governing body, you would expect management to consult with a key player especially one of Kallis' caliber, before making a decision on selecting him or not. If a player feels fit enough to compete then he should be allowed to, because only he knows his body's capability. More so in Kallis' case, because the competition in question is being staged in his backyard.

Apparently this was not done and Kallis blew his top when the decision was made and he was only offered an explanation after the fact.

The UCBSA will learn from this experience, no doubt.

Kallis had every right to be upset and bare his emotions because he is South Africa's superstar.
Surely he would've been a greater asset than the likes of Vernon Philander or Johan van - der- wath, who all blundered in South Africa's pathetic run chase that saw them failing to score to score at least 126 runs against India, that led to them being kicked out of the Twenty/20 Cup in the second round.

Regardless of his slow scoring in the 50 overs World Cup, a man of Kallis' experience is good enough to attack when it needs be in such dire circumstances.

No matter how selfish he appears to be, and you get the impression it is that character trait that led to the cold war he has with the Board in the first place. Nevertheless the player’s absence was telling in South Africa.

Most of his career he appears to bat more for himself than the team as his trademark conservative approach suggests.

He is not as adventurous as Herschelle Gibbs or Graeme Smith, who have set the standard for popularity in the team.

And if you add his arrogance on top of that, it might be made clearer why Smith was handed the captaincy as a rookie ahead of the experienced all-rounder, a few years back.

When he was questioned by a fan for not observing the country's national anthem before a game, Kallis put down him down like an obnoxious non-entity.

"It is my choice whether I sing or do not sing the anthem," he said. "I certainly do not have to explain my reasons to anyone, especially you. I do have good and valid personal reasons and I intend to keep it that way," Kallis berated told the fan.

Also, these days he does not seem to care how his batting approach is viewed by past South African greats.

Barry Richards once said the Cape Town all-rounder will not be remembered for fully justifying his talent because he needs to step up his batting pace more often, or when Allan Donald suggested he should he change gear, Kallis's retort bordered on disrespect.

"They can say what they like about me, honestly, I just don't care. Not in the slightest. I've realized what works for me and I'm going to keep on playing to my strengths. I've been batting this way for a long time now. I have become more dominant in recent years and the aim now is to build on that,"

No player has the right to believe he is better than everyone else, but that is how Kallis came across with his dismissal of Richards and Donald.

Maybe he will some day learn to look out for other players like he does for himself all the time, in the manner Mark Boucher stood up for him and risked his place in the team by criticizing the Board for omitting his team mate.

Boucher and others would be in awe of Kallis for among other things, for averaging the highest of all South African Test batsman at 55.09 and in ODIs at 45.49.
His feat of scoring centuries in five consecutive Tests is bettered only by Sir Donald Bradman. Kallis also, is so far the only player to be crowned International Cricket Council (ICC) Test Player and Player of the year, all in the said period.

Some observers even match him in the same batting category of contemporary greats like the recently retired Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Yusuf, and state categorically that none of the lot can bowl like him.

Apart from Sir Garry Sobers no one but the South African has scored more than 8000 Test runs and captured 200 wickets.

Yet it does guarantee him the right to behave aloof.

No doubt, Kallis has scored enough to be spoken of in the same breadth as Ponting and the others but he is way less attractive than any of the four mentioned. Even Tendulkar in his current struggles, the South African would be hard pressed to top for excitement.

Many of his compatriot South Africans might be tempted to pay more to see the others in action.

Majola would be happy though, to have him in every Test team from now onwards.

Especially in light of the threat posed by the Indian Cricket League on the sub continent.

Andrew Hall has already made tracks there, but you don’t get the impression Kallis would follow suit that easily.

The records and the stats of ICC competitions are too strong for his ego to resist.

He will continue for South Africa, but you wish he would mellow out the rest of the way.
After all he is 31 years of age.
Orin Davidson Column Homepage