Centurion, November 15: Towards the end of a love-in that doubled as a press briefing last week, Kevin Pietersen made a startling claim.
He said: “I truly believe that Jacques Kallis is the greatest cricketer ever. He’s just phenomenal.” Some 3,305 men have played international cricket, 2,567 of them in Test matches, so at the very least Pietersen’s assessment is an invitation to debate.
Kallis himself, who is less given to hyperbole than his friend Pietersen, said yesterday: “It was a great compliment but you’ve got to look at it in context. The stats might be there but we’re playing a lot more cricket these days than the guys played in yesteryear and I’m sure their figures would have been the same and they would have achieved what modern players have. It’s a compliment coming from him but I think if you play the game long enough you’re going to have a few runs and wickets by your name, to be fair.”
If Pietersen might have erred on the side of overstatement, that was probably an understatement of the matter. Kallis has been, still is, an extremely considerable cricketer indeed. He was 34 last month and remains alone among all-rounders of his generation in playing all forms of the game, and has appeared in 435 international matches.
–Agencies