The Kallis Conundrum

Having endured a miserable time of it last time he was in England, there was a typically Kallisian probability that the bugger would grind his way to a century today. And so he did. It had everything you’d expect from a Kallis innings – which is both a compliment and thin praise indeed. Naturally the commentators were united in praising the South African as a true modern great, “up there with the best of them”. But is this true?

No-one ever said of Kallis, as Cardus did of Woolley, that his batting is the stuff of “soft airs and fresh flavours” nor does it even contain “the brevity of summer” which also accounted for Woolley’s loveliness. For the truth is that Kallis is not a lovely batsman. He possesses many virtues but chief among them is his quiet efficiency. Of all the leading batsman of the age, Kallis is the least demonstrative, the least exciting, the least entertaining.