Australia coach Mickey Arthur described him last week as the greatest cricketer ever, save for Don Bradman, so it came as no surprise yesterday when Jacques Kallis was identified as the South African player the Australians are targeting most this summer.
Arthur is not given to hyperbole and, even if he were, it would be fully justified in the case of Kallis, who in the 125-year history of the game trails only Sachin Tendulkar (15,533), Ricky Ponting (13,346) and Rahul Dravid (13,288) in terms of Test runs scored and his at a higher average than all of them, 56.94.
But that is only half the story. The South African all-rounder also ranks 29th on the list of all-time Test wicket-takers with 280 at 32.63 runs apiece.
Small wonder his Proteas coach and former teammate Gary Kirsten counts him as two players, not one. If that is the case, then Australia has set itself the target of limiting the contributions of both Kallises in the three-Test series starting tomorrow at the Gabba.
Historically, Australian teams have always sought to land a crippling psychological blow by undermining the confidence of the opposition captain and a good case could certainly be made for them to do so again in this series. Graeme Smith is not only the youngest Test captain in South African cricket history but the most successful and, uniquely, besting Australia on Australian soil in 2008-09.
Yet it is not Smith the Australians are targeting, or the world No 1-ranked paceman Dale Steyn, but Kallis, Ponting revealed yesterday.
“He’s our No 1 opponent this week and we’ve got to find every way we can to break him down and make sure he doesn’t have a major impact on the series,” said Ponting. “That’s our job this week. We can catch up and talk once the series is over and done with but, come Friday morning, it’s going to be good old-fashioned hard, tough Test match cricket, the way we love to play. That’s what I think is making this series so exciting.”
Kallis, who is making what surely will be his last tour of Australia, is fairly phlegmatic about all the attention and gave a practised answer yesterday when asked about his new status as Australian Public Target No 1.
“I don’t know,” he aw-shucked. “It’s a new game of cricket. Anything could happen on the day. We’ve got a quality side that has performed over the last three or four years to get to No 1 so it means that probably everyone has contributed at some period of time. It would obviously be nice to have a good series against these guys but, as much as it’s a compliment, we’ve got 11 guys in our side who are match-winners.”
But there was genuine humility in his voice when he addressed the claim made by Arthur, his former South African coach that he now ranks second only to Bradman’s Zeus in the pantheon of the cricketing gods. Given that Arthur’s assessment, if vindicated across the decades, nudges the immortal Garfield Sobers down to No 3, it was an appropriate moment to be humble and generous.
“I’ve never been one that likes to compare players or eras, especially with the amount of cricket that we play in this era compared to yesteryear. Yesteryear’s players would have some unbelievable achievements as well if they had had the opportunity to play as much as we have,” said Kallis.
“Obviously it’s an honour to be compared to those guys but I have never been one that has played the game to worry too much about that kind of stuff.”
It is a serious shame that this series is being played out not over five Tests, which Kallis believes it deserves, but only three.
“We’ve always said it would be nice to have a five-Test series against Oz but the schedule these days it’s so tough to fit it in.
“The two (Test) series we had in South Africa (last year) I thought was crazy . . . we need to find some time for the top sides playing against each other to maybe turn it into four or five-Test series.
