Jacques Kallis

Jacques Henry Kallis OIS (born 16 October 1975) is a South African cricket coach and former professional cricketer.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketers of all time and as the greatest all-rounder ever to play the game, he is a right-handed batsman and right-arm fast-medium swing bowler.

, Kallis is the only cricketer in the history of the game to score more than 10,000 runs and take over 250 wickets in both ODI and Test match cricket.

He has also taken 131 ODI catches.

He scored 13,289 runs in his Test match career, took 292 wickets, and 200 catches.

Kallis scored 45 Test match centuries and is the third highest test match run scorer in history.

Kallis won 23 Man-of-the-Match awards, the most by any player in Test history.

In July 1993 he was picked for South Africa U-17's against Scotland's U-19 team.

He made his first-class debut in 1993/94 as an 18-year-old, playing for Western Province B.

Still 18, Kallis played league cricket in England for Old Edwardians in Solihull in 1994, where coaching staff saw the potential for him to become a first-class all-rounder; the following summer he played for Netherfield in Kendal, scoring 791 runs at an average of 98.87 from 14 matches.

His first Test appearance was on 14–18 December 1995 against England in Durban, but he struggled with the bat in his first few matches.

Kallis made his World Cup debut in 1996 in Pakistan but did not have much opportunity to excel.

His breakthrough came in 1997, with 61 against Pakistan, and then two matches later, he salvaged a draw for South Africa with a fighting century against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

He was declared the Player of the Tournament in South Africa's victorious 1998 ICC KnockOut Trophy (now referred to as ICC Champions Trophy) campaign, which to date is South Africa's only ICC tournament win in their history.

Kallis finished as the 2nd highest run-scorer in the tournament and was its leading wicket taker with 'Man of the Match' awards in both the semi-final and the final.

In the 1998 ICC KnockOut Trophy Final, Kallis picked up a spell of 5 wickets for 30 runs.

Kallis played 166 Test matches and had a batting average of over 55 runs.

Between 1998 and 2002, Jacques Kallis was one of the world's leading all-rounders, as seen in the ICC's cricket ratings.

In 1998, he led South Africa to the ICC Champions Trophy title with two "Man of the Match" and the "Player of the Series" performances.

The youngster was solid, without being spectacular, in the 1999 ICC Cricket World Cup, before a "Player of the Series" performance led South Africa to a stunning Test series victory against India in India in 2000.

By late 2001 he was the world's number one ranked Test all-rounder, having held the same ranking in ODIs for the best part of 3 years.

During this time, "Kallis blossomed into arguably the world's leading batsman, with a defensive technique second to none, and the adhesive qualities of a Cape Point limpet. Generally a placid and undemonstrative man, he nailed down the crucial No. 3 positions in the South African batting order after several players had been tried and discarded, and his stock rose exponentially from that moment."

Kallis is one of only four players in Test history (after Sir Donald Bradman and before Mohammad Yousuf and Gautam Gambhir) to make a century in five consecutive matches, which he achieved in the 2003/04 season.

For his performances in 2004, 2005, and 2008, he was named in the World Test XI by ICC.

He was also named in the World ODI XI by the ICC for the year 2004 and 12th man for XI in 2005.

In 2005, he set the record for the fastest half-century in Test cricket history, scoring 50 against Zimbabwe off only 24 balls.

From October to December 2007, he scored five centuries in four Test matches.

He was also selected for the ODI XI in 2007 as well.

In 2007, Kallis scored five centuries in four Tests, making him just the fourth man after Bradman, Ken Barrington and Matthew Hayden to score four centuries in four Tests on two different occasions.

Kallis was named Leading Cricketer in the World in 2008 Wisden for his performances in 2007 in addition to being the "ICC Test Player of the Year" and ICC Player of the Year in 2005.

He has been described by Kevin Pietersen and Daryll Cullinan as the greatest cricketer to play the game, and along with Wally Hammond and Sir Garry Sobers is one of the few Test all-rounders whose Test batting average is over 50 and exceeds his Test bowling average by 20 or more.

In 2009 Wynberg honoured Kallis by naming their main cricket oval after him.

With his century in the second innings of the third Test against India in January 2011, his 40th in all, he moved past Ricky Ponting to become the second-highest scorer of Test centuries, behind only Sachin Tendulkar's 51.

Kallis became the fourth player and first South African to score 13,000 Test runs on the opening day of the first Test against New Zealand on 2 January 2013.

He was named one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 2013.

He retired from Test and first-class cricket after playing in the second test against India at Durban in December 2013; Kallis scored his 45th Test hundred in this match, making him one of the few batsmen to score a century in his final Test.

He retired from all forms of international cricket on 30 July 2014.

In December 2019, it was announced that Jacques Kallis would rejoin the South African national cricket team, The Proteas, as the team's batting consultant for the duration of the summer.

In August 2020, he was inducted to the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

Kallis attended and played cricket for Wynberg Boys' High School.