Jacques Kallis, South Africa’s most prolific Test batsman ever, has announced his retirement from Test cricket after the Durben Test against India. Kallis is a man with a sound technique, mental strength and the ability to change his game according to the situation. Former Australian captain Steve Waugh once said that "we had tried simply everything against this guy, but we can’t find a weakness in his game".
Kallis has the ability to construct his innings ball-by-ball, playing each delivery on its merit, no matter what is happening to the rest of the batsmen in the team.
He will continue playing One-day Internationals till World Cup 2015, if he remains fit. In his retirement statement he said, "It wasn’t an easy decision, with Australia around the corner and the success this team is enjoying, but I feel the time is right. I don’t see it as goodbye, I still have a lot of hunger to push South Africa to that World Cup in 2015 if I am fit and performing."
Jacques Henry Kallis is among the very few batsmen in the world who have a Test batting average over 55. He is the only batsman after Sir Donald Bradman to have hit centuries in five consecutive Test matches. He scored 158, 177, 130*, 130*, 150* in five consecutive Tests. In four Tests against West Indies, Kallis piles on 712 runs at an average of 178. Kallis is the fourth on the list of leading run-getters in Test cricket after Sachin Tendulkar (15,921), Ricky Ponting (13,378) and Rahul Dravid (13,288).
He is second on the list of batsmen with most Test centuries with 44 tons, after little master Sachin Tendulkar’s 51 hundreds. Kallis, 38, proved himself a better all-rounder than Garfield Sobers (8,032 runs, 235 wickets, 109 catches in 93 Tests) and Sir Ian Botham (5,200 runs, 383 wickets, 120 catches in 102 Tests).
Kallis is ranked third in Test all-rounders ranking. He is the first player to score 13,000 runs and take 250 wickets. With 199 catches (before the Durban Test began), he is the second most successful fielder in Test cricket, behind Rahul Dravid (210). Kallis made his Test debut against England at Durban on December 14, 1995. He made just one run in his first innings. His next seven Test innings produced only 57 runs, leaving him with an average of 7.13.
But selectors continued to show confidence in him and selected him for the Australia tour. Playing in front of a massive Melbourne Cricket Ground Boxing Day crowd, Kallis made 15 in the first innings of the first Test. But in the second innings, with the Proteas set an improbable target of 381, Kallis showed magnificent mental toughness to occupy the crease for around six hours in making 101. That effort saved the Test for South Africa and became the turning point in Kallis’s career.
In November 1998 the West Indies team toured South Africa for a five-Test series; Kallis undoubtedly was the star of the series with 485 runs at an average of 69.28. In addition, in the presence of Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock, he claimed 17 wickets at a very low average of 17.58.
In the fourth Test, at his home ground Newlands, Kallis delivered one of the best allround performances in Test history. In South Africa’s first innings he made 110 and then followed that up with two for 34 as the Proteas took a first innings lead of 194. Batting a second time he finished unbeaten on 88 as South Africa declared on 226-7, leaving the West Indies requiring an improbable 421 for victory. With Allan Donald injured, Kallis bowled 27.4 overs and took 5-90. He was deservedly declared Man of the Match and Man of the Series. During the tour of West Indies in February 2000, he became only the second South African to score a century and a fifty and take five wickets in a Test after Aubrey Faulkner.
He is the only man in history to score 24,000 runs, take 550 wickets and hold 300 catches in Test and ODIs.
Kallis was declared the ICC Test Player of the Year in 2005.