Kallis: from puny kid to king

It's hard to believe now, but Jacques Kallis was once thought to be too small and too unfit to be a really good cricketer.

That was a decade and a half ago when the Western Province selectors dropped him from their under-15 team. It was the first time this had happened to the young Kallis and the boy was distraught.

He went to see his coach at Wynberg Boys High, Keith Richardson, and the two "talked it through".

At the end of their conversation, Richardson, now headmaster of the school, remembers Kallis promising: "Just watch me, sir. I'll show them."

Kallis has been showing them for 15 years now.

This month Kallis reached a new milestone in that personal demonstration: he went to the top of the world batting order, supplanting India's Rahul Dravid as the No 1 batsman on the International Cricket Council ranking list. It is the first time that a South African has occupied this spot.

What has helped Kallis reach such heights was a golden 2004 and start to 2005 in which he scored 1 503 runs in 12 Tests at an astronomical average of 83.5.

He also took 16 wickets in those dozen Tests at an average just over 30, which puts him in the all-rounders class of luminaries such as Garry Sobers and Ian Botham, but it has been his batting that has not only been South Africa's saving grace this summer, but also turned the series against England.

Without Kallis' 162 in Durban, England would have arrived in Cape Town for the third Test 2-0 up. The demoralising effect this would have had on the team can only be imagined.

His first century of the series saved a Test match and his second won it. The 149 at Newlands in South Africa's victory may also have decisively swung a series that seemed doomed for the home team when Kallis went for 0 and 61 and England won at St George's in the first Test.

The influence of Kallis' batting this summer is clear: when Kallis fails, defeat looms. This is one reason why his old school coach Richardson believes that the Kallis critics are unfair,

Barry Richards is the most high profile of these, suggesting in a recent television commentary that Kallis fails to dominate an attack in the manner of a great batsman. Others have been less diplomatic, with the Barmy Army chiming in with "Boring, boring Kallis".

"He carries great expectations," said Richardson. "The entire team depends on him; on his run-scoring."

Not that the criticism seems to bother Kallis. This week he told the Guardian: "They can say what they like. I just don't care."

It's easy to believe that Kallis can put such barbs out of his mind. His focus at the crease has the intensity of a sniper. Like Steve Waugh, he has cut out most of the high-risk shots, although the English believe he has had a bit of luck too.

His coach at Western Province, Peter Kirsten, himself once a prolific run-scorer, believes the secret of Kallis' powers of concentration lie in doing the basics right.

"It's as simple as that," says Kirsten. "It's just a pity that he doesn't try to dominate more. That may be why he has not yet scored a double century in Tests." (His highest score is 189.)

At times in the Cape Town Test, Kallis did seem like a plodder in the second innings when South Africa needed quick runs. In 35 overs, he added only 83 with a genuine plodder in Boeta Dippenaar. The next day it took him 25 minutes to get off the mark. In mitigation, it was cricket attrition South Africa were applying and the end justified the means.

Those who know Kallis well put such batting tactics down to the weight of responsibility that the player feels in a team which is short of experience in the middle order and in which one of its most dominating batsmen, Herschelle Gibbs, has been, well, un-dominating in recent times.

Richardson believes that Kallis has developed an ability to read a game and has come a long way from his final year at school when the WP team he was playing for chased a target of between 180 and 190. Kallis and Rashid Lewis batted together for about an hour and a half, but failed to reach it.

"He has really developed since then," said Richardson. "He is now aware of the state of a game."

Part of that development is due to England coach Duncan Fletcher. This is not the irony it might seem. Kallis and Fletcher's son Michael opened the batting for the Wynberg First XI and Fletcher was the WP coach when Kallis came into the team as a teenager on a contract of R1 000 a month.

Kallis has often remarked on Fletcher's influence. "Fletcher was instrumental in setting up my technique at a young age," he told the Guardian this week.

Richardson says Fletcher was closer to being Kallis' cricket mentor than anyone else, but also emphasises the role that the late Henry Kallis played.

Kallis' father Henry died in 2003, having been a single parent to Jacques and his sister for most of their lives after the early death of their mother. Kallis senior even took early retirement from the Old Mutual to look after the two and it is obvious that both children were close to their father.

"He would do anything for Jacques, but he also set boundaries," said Richardson. "Henry ruled with a rod of iron."

Greg Bing, who coached Kallis at Claremont when the prodigy left Wynberg Boys, remembers the young player always being immaculately turned out. This could be unusual in a sport where many players leave their washing in the boot from Saturday to Saturday.

"His whites were always perfectly ironed and neat - that was Henry," said Bing.

Bing also recalls Kallis as a shy, respectful boy who did not mind where he batted, or when he bowled.

Kallis obviously went down well at the club, and the club went down well with him. During the early part of his provincial career, Kallis experienced the inevitable bad trot. Claremont, through Bing, organised a 70-over middle practice with Kallis facing the club's best bowlers, who included Aubrey Martyn, Dean Payne and Alan Dawson, and even some others invited from elsewhere such as Russell Adams of Cape Town Cricket Club. The club provided the rotating fielders.

In the first 35 overs, Kallis and his partner, Ryan Maron, put on 140. Kallis was out twice. In the next 35 overs Kallis was "awesome" to those who saw it. He shared a stand of 240 with Dawson and never lost his wicket once.

It was all evidence of Kallis' professional attitude. "He always came to practice with a plan," said Dawson. "He is hard working and very professional."

What Michael Atherton this week described as Kallis' "pursuit of perfection".

Jacques Kallis' Test record

(under headings: Tests, runs, highest score, hundreds, fifties, average)

856 656189no193455.46

His record so far in the series against England

3 Tests, 448 runs, 162 highest score, 2 hundreds. Average: 74.66