Jacques Kallis exit marks the end of an era

Anand Vasu's tribute to the South Africa all-rounder follows Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar out of cricket after the Durban Test against India.

Jacques Kallis is last of a generation of legends to retire from cricket. Duif du Toit / Gallo Images / Getty Images

And then there were none.

On Christmas day, 2013, the last of the modern giants announced that he had given all he could to Test cricket, done all he could for his team, and all that was left in him was one final Test match, against India at Durban.

At 38 years and 70 days, Jacques Henry Kallis, a veteran with the heart of a young man – much in evidence during the first Test when he sent down 20 overs to make up for the injured Morne Morkel – had enough of answering critics and searching for a way out of indifferent form.

If Sachin Tendulkar were a statistical batting colossus second only to Sir Don Bradman, then Kallis the all-rounder was bettered only by Sir Garry Sobers.

While there was undeniable beauty and grace to Kallis’s batting – his cover driving was a sight for sore eyes – his slip fielding had a bankability and his medium-fast bowling was muscular. Kallis married skill, power, experience and intelligence like no other South African cricketer in the game’s history.

The timing of Kallis’s announcement certainly caught everyone by surprise. If his teammates knew about it, they did not let on when South Africa put in a hard training session at Durban yesterday. Kallis bent his back, bowling in tandem with Dale Steyn, as though it was any other day in the team’s life.

It was, however, anything but that. In Durban, this is the time of the year when the beaches are swollen with incoming traffic, the good folk who live in landlocked areas of South Africa such as Johannesburg, finding their way to the beaches. The streets were empty, locals spending their time with family.

Last-minute touches were being applied to the ground – advertising hoardings that needed straightening, sponsor logos being painted on to the outfield and the pitch being tended to one final time before it was covered in hessian only to be unveiled on match morning.

While the world went about its business, Kallis left himself with only one last opportunity to add to the 13,174 runs, 292 wickets and 199 catches accumulated over an 18-year career that took in 165 Tests.

On the batting lists, only Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting and Rahul Dravid are higher up the charts, and Kallis could conceivably move up a spot, if he can score 115 in his final Test. It will not be easy, for Kallis has endured his worst year in the game, averaging 17.63 from seven Tests in 2013, a retreat from his overall mark of 55.12.

With his departure an era has truly ended, for he was the last of the modern masters still playing his trade.

When Ponting called it a day, and Tendulkar followed suit recently, the only two active cricketers in the 10,000-plus club were Kallis, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara.

While Chanderpaul has done yeoman service for a struggling West Indies team, he will never be spoken of with quite the same admiration as the others at the top of the heap, for he simply did not have the game to impose himself on the opposition, as did the others. And neither Jayawardene nor Sangakkara have managed to match their feats at home in alien conditions.

But despite his recent struggles, Kallis had plenty of cricket left in him, which was only confirmed by the fact that he did not give up limited-overs cricket, keeping the dream of World Cup glory alive.

Those close to Kallis said say they were surprised but not caught unawares by the manner of his going. But Kallis wanted to keep things as low-key as possible, and it was understood that Cricket South Africa and the South Africa team would respect this. The last thing Kallis wanted was a farewell of the kind Tendulkar got.

What he will not mind, though, is to go out on a win, for that would be perfect reward for his years of service.

Anand Vasu is managing editor at Wisden India