Jacques Kallis links too much cricket with shortage of all-rounders

New Delhi, December 6

Jacques Kallis, one of the last multi-skilled legends, feels quality all-rounders have become a scarcity in modern-day cricket, especially in Tests, because of “too much cricket across formats”.

While Sir Garfield Sobers (8032 runs and 235 wickets) is considered ‘greatest’ across generations, Kallis (25,000-plus runs and nearly 600 wickets in three formats) is one of the legendary all-rounders the modern era has seen. In the 1980s, there were four great all-rounders in Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee, Ian Botham and Kapil Dev while the new millennium saw the emergence of Kallis and Andrew Flintoff.

But the advent of T20 cricket and mushrooming leagues across the globe have actually discouraged development of multi-skilled cricketers.

“It is a tough question to answer, all-rounders don’t come around every day. There aren’t many throughout the history. Lot of things, amount of cricket that is played certainly plays a role,” Kallis said.

The former Proteas captain is in India to play the Legends League Cricket. While he didn’t name the Indian Premier League, the former KKR coach isn’t a great fan of the ‘Impact Player’ rule, which allows a team to change one player during its batting or bowling innings as per need.

“A few T20 competitions have substitutes and I am not a big fan as it takes the all-rounder out of your team. The teams that do not have good all-rounders are now playing with 12 men. I am not a huge fan of that,” he said.

“There are lot of little things that add up to why there aren’t too many all-rounders at the moment, and it is surprising as they add so much value to the game,” he added. — PTI

Centurion will be tough for India

The Indian team would be embarking on a tough away tour of South Africa, the only major Test playing nation where it hasn’t won a Test series in 31 years. The focus will be on the two Test matches, which are part of the World Test Championship cycle. “This is a good Indian team but South Africa is tough to beat at home. Centurion will probably suit South Africa and Newlands will probably suit India. It will be a good series and it will come down to one or two sessions that one team might play better than the other. It would be a closely-fought contest,” said Kallis.

Spinner Bishnoi becomes world’s No. 1 T20I bowler

Dubai: Young Indian leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi today rose to the top spot in the ICC T20I bowling chart on the back of his recent performance against Australia. The 23-year-old took nine wickets from five games and was named the Player of the Series. Bishnoi (699 points) jumped five places to displace Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan (692) from the top slot. Meanwhile, Suryakumar Yadav, who captained India against Australia, held on to the top spot among batters.