India Tests take aways

2-0 in India is indeed an epic Test series win. The Protea's first since 2005. The records and accolades have been amply enumerated elsewhere. Moaning about the easy run to the WTC final last cycle may stop now, or at least once the English and Aussies are done with the other Test tour ongoing and take some notice of results in other parts of the world.

What other takeaways can we call?

Shukri Conrad has found his inner P-Div
The 'grovel' comment was as cringeworthy as anything said in a presser by everyone's least favourite Snor. Bavuma and Conrad have been walking on water for a couple years now, but WTF Shukri?! I can only hope that when the time inevitably comes to eat those words, you take it as in your stride as well as Tony Greig did.

Picking allrounders
Both coaches loaded the team with allrounders. It worked for Conrad, less so for Ghambir. One coach got a lot of heat for the selections, and it wasn't the one who was winning.

Rabada misses out
Visiting quicks in India usually don't really mind missing out injured. But this time KG may have experienced a tiny amount of regret. For someone already in the GOAT discussion a record of 9 wickets at 44 in India stands out as a low point, and chances to rectify those numbers don't come along every day.

WTC cycle is ... progressing fast
Seems it's barely started, yet we're nearly halfway through? These away points will surely help the Proteas greatly.

Long wait for the next Test action The world champion Proteas play again soon... as soon as September 2026, when Australia come and visit. India on the other hand are in a hurry and head to Sri Lanka in ... August next year.

What a crowded Test calendar we have.

Photo retro: 2023-12-21 - SA vs India at Boland Park

This was the third of three ODIs. India had batted first and put up a good 296. Photo was taken from the south western grass bank near the score board. I wouldn't swear to who was batting there but it was near the start when there was still hope, so likely de Zorzi and one of Reeza Hendricks or Aiden Markram.

Hope didn't last and India went on to take the game by 78 runs and the series 2-1. Both teams moved to Newlands next to start the Test.

More memorable for me was solo parenting three small kids through the event. The daytime temp hit 38C, and dropped sharply at sundown. One child lost a tooth midway through the first innings. Two got in trouble with security for sneaking out to fetch a ball hit too far (yes, this is thing one can do at Boland Park). I spent most of the second innings queueing to buy pizza (maybe not a bad thing given the RSA collapse), and overall spent way too much on confectionary and bottled water and way too little on beer.

As you can tell from the horrendous focal length the pic was taken with my smart phone at the time. It was a Samsung A73.

Zim tour take aways

So the Proteas played some games in Zimbabwe. What can we take away from this? In no particular order...

Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo is a beautiful venue
Glorious to see red ball cricket in a venue like that. Village charm etc. The crowds looked to be having a good time too.

Wiaan Mulder and Brian Lara disagree about batting records
Was the declaration the right decision? I don't know, but I think we all know that if Mulder was batting against Australia, 1-0 up in a two match series, he sure as hell wouldn't have declared.

L-Dre Pretorius is a pretty good batter
At least for biffing first class bowlers on a flattish pitch. Still, I liked what I saw so far. He seems to have loads of time and all the shots.

Corbin Bosch is a pretty good all rounder
At least ... you know. Although looking at the list this is still a great achievment. It's a short list, and plenty others are against the minnows of the time.

Zim have got some money to spend
Why else would they be playing all this Test cricket? Cool, cool. They have some promising young players, I hope it works out for them.

There is also T20 tri series. It's not quite done yet but I guess my takeaway from that will be that tri-series were kind of weird in the 90's and have not improved since. And that NZ are much better than the Protea's B team and Zimbabwe's A team.

Photo Retro: 2006-03-18 - SA vs Aus at Newlands

 

One of the first cricket photos I took. Pictured is Shane Warne bowling to Jacques Rudolph, taken from the Railway Stand at Newlands.

SA had won the preceding ODI series 3-2, with the last ODI on 12 March being the famous 438 game in Joburg. This was the third day of the first Test.

The Proteas had batted first and folded for 205 with Stuart Clark taking a fiver on debut. A creditable effort by a Proteas bowling lineup in transition restricted Aus to 308. SA second innings went no better ending on 197. Aus chased a target of 95 down with seven wickets in hand and would go on to win the series 3-0.

I can't say I remember the day clearly, but it's likely I would have spent it drinking Bosun's Bitter and getting sunburnt.

Shot was taken with a Fujifilm FinePix A350. I'd bought the camera in December 2005 at the beginning of a summer road trip back to the Eastern Cape. EXIF tells me it was taken at f4.7, 1/500s, ISO64, and a focal length of 17.4mm. The latter can't be right - it would surely have been more like the 105mm maximum supporting the advertised "3x optical zoom".

WTC Winners 2025

Honestly, my best day as a cricket fan since Kepler's Eastern Province beat Clive Rice's Transvaal (by an innings) to win the Currie Cup for the first time in 1989, a match in which my childhood batting hero Philip Amm (RIP) made 214.

Life as ever is busy with various other priorities and projects. I'm going to try and make more regular updates here. After all opinions are for free, and I've got a bunch.

At Least No One Can Say We Choked...

... because on the night, India was clearly the better team. The Proteas were outplayed, man for man.

~

This review by the estimable Firdose Moonda really says all that there is to say about our T20 (and ODI) sides: less than the sum of the parts. I'm not sure what the problem is, but by now I would say that it's become chronic and is a much worse problem than the old "chokers" tag. At least "choking" meant only losing a couple of high-profile games. This new mediocrity results in a lot more losses.

~

Sri Lanka went on to win it. It's a good send off for some of their legends. Hard times lie ahead in transition for them, but for now they are deserving T20 champions.

~

As the lands here under the Southern Cross begins to slide into winter darkness there isn't much cricket in the immeadiate future. The Protea's next date is with the Lankans in July, over at their place. I have a selection of ideas to write about during the slow news days, but we'll just have to see how it goes.

On the South African limited overs team

For a while now I've been asking myself:  

What the hell's wrong with our limited overs side?

This question is usually muttered while turning away from another dismal TV broadcast, or glumly following another cricinfo commentary feed from my office desk. Once it felt like we were the team to beat in ODIs. Pundits marvelled at our home ODI series record. When T20 came around it felt like we were ahead of the curve, ready for this new format where other sides were still groping for answers.

How valid is this feeling? For a change I rolled up my sleeves and spent some time working up some numbers for you (and even this paltry exercise took too long - the child woke up, suddenly it was food, bath, etc and hours before any more cricket blogging took place).

ICC ODI ranking for South Africa in January of each year

The ICC rankings seem to back up that feeling. The Proteas ODI side seems to be in the worst mid-table slump since the years directly following readmission. I haven't done the same for the T20 rankings - you do it, gentle reader - but I bet you'd find the same.

So, why is this? I have some theories. Prop yourself up against the bar, get another beer, and I'll run them past you.

Focus on the Test side
This current golden age of South African Test cricket didn't come without a price. The performance of the Test side has been put at a premium over the limited overs teams. Players critical to Tests have been rested for ODIs and T20's; future generations will look at Steyn's record and wonder why he player so few of them. Limited overs games have been used to try out promising youngsters and likely "transformation players". The captaincy has changed hands more often and more experimentally. On the whole it's been taken a lot less seriously, and the results show it.

Other teams have gotten better
Especially at T20. These days the top sides seem to be playing a different game to the Proteas. Once upon a time the men in green and gold revolutionised ODIs with their fielding and running between wickets. T20 has come and the game has moved on. Teams around the world have identified new tactics and skill sets that are needed for winning, while we're still trying to play the same game. I have some theories about the team composition needed to win T20's (maybe worth a whole blog post), and it includes beefy baseball-style hitters, unconventional pacemen and mystery spinners. We have none of the above, instead we have...

An obsession with all rounders
All rounders have always a South African strong point. But you only need so many in a team, and we've had a lamentable tendency to pack our sides with three or four bits-n-pieces players (in addition to Kallis) instead of the best specialists available. Ever since Pollock and Klusener we've expected every provincial all rounder to deliver match-winning performances. Vernon Philander managed to escape that trap, although we're all slowly remembering that the guy can bat too. Others like Justin Kemp and Albie Morkel were victims of the expectations of the past. Cricket is a game where specialists shine - wicket takers and run makers need no extra skill (well, these days they do need to be decent fielders too). All rounders are a bonus, not a strategy.

Choking
The choking rep hasn't helped either. But the enough has already been said about that all over everywhere, which is probably part of the problem.

~

So as the Proteas proceed into the semis of the World T20, I'll be watching with low expectations. I think this team has done well to get as far as it has. Anything further will be gravy, especially against an unbeaten Indian side in their (almost) home conditions. I think there are some signs that our limited overs teams are coming out of this current funk, but there's a ways to go still until the glory days are back.
 

SA v Aus: Rounding Up The Calls

The world of cricket moves fast enough these days that keeping to a one-post-per-week schedule feels like a plodding pace as news races past. As I write this Nepal have just thrashed Hong Kong on the opening day of World T20. More about that next week. Maybe.

In this post I'm going to look way way back into ancient history at the Australian victory in the Test series against top ranked South Africa. This won't be a wordy series review or well thought out retrospective. No, this evening we're going to tally up the pre- and mid-series trash talk and see how it panned out.

~~~~o~~~~

Aussie Trash Talk Roundup

Nobody talks smack like the Aussies. Let's see how they did.

"This Australian attack is the best in the World." ~Michael Clarke
Fired off before the Ashes were even over, this one got the South Africans justifiably heated up. Now that the dust has settled it has to be said that Clarke's fast men out bowled their Saffa counterparts. However Australia ended the series with a different pace attack than they started with, and Lyon's spinners were no better than JP Duminy's.
The call: EVENS

"I think he [Johnson] probably is the best fast bowler in the world at the moment." ~Craig McDermott
I'm willing to let the stats speak for themselves here. Mitch sure is on fire. Hope the toe comes right soon.
The call: WIN

"Still 'bull....', Graeme?" ~Daniel Brettig after the first Test.
Port Elizabeth followed a few days a later.
The call: FAIL

"I would have liked to see him [Vernon Philander] bowl at Adelaide in that second Test when he apparently hurt his back." ~David Warner
Vern bowled his share of hard overs during the series, albeit without much success. Warner's series was dazzling, but he can't justifiably accuse his opponent of shirking any work.
The call: FAIL

"The boys have learned how to play him [Vernon Philander]." ~Peter Siddle
With seven wickets at 51, the Aus top order sure seemed to have worked out how to play Philander.
The call: WIN

"They did it better than what we did, or more obvious than what we did." ~David Warner, on ball tampering
Warner followed up by accusing AB's wicketkeeping gloves. I don't think much needs to be said about this one.
The call: FAIL

"Low and slow, it [PE] is the sort of wicket that threatens to kill cricket instead of the batsmen who play on it." ~Malcolm Conn, after Day 2 at PE
This pretty much summed up the Aussie whining during and after the PE Test. Conn was singing a different tune after day 4.
The call: FAIL

"David Warner’s lack of respect making Australia look like whingers." ~Malcolm Conn
When a low-brow critic like Conn - whose column is written at a 8th grade reading level using the maximum number of monosyllables and single-sentence paragraphs - disses you like this it's pretty embarrassing. Good on Mr Conn.
The call: WIN

~~~~o~~~~

Alan's Calls

Because we're all about objectivity over here. Let's take a look at my own pre-series predictions.

"My money is on Ryan Harris as the danger man"
Mitch sure did pitch, but I stand by this prediction. One has only to watch the highlights of the last Test and read the post match press coverage to see how important Harris is to the side. The Australians will be hoping that he makes a swift post-op recovery.
The call: WIN

"If Steyn, Philander and Morkel stay fit enough to play all the games the Proteas will probably win"
Steyn's fitness struggle was pretty clear, and Morkel wasn't without niggles. So I've got an out here. Still, they took the field in all the games, so...
The call: EVENS

"The senior [batsmen] in Smith, Amla and de Villiers are going to need to collectively make up the extra man"
I'll stand by this one too. Too bad Smith's head was in a different place.
The call: WIN

"Clarke is world class [...] Of the rest, I've always rated Warner and Spud Smith. The rest are a mix of overrated senior pros and unproven rookies."  
The first half was a bit of a no-brainer, but I'll take credit for it anyway. The second was born out by the performances of Marsh, Doolan and Rogers.
The call: WIN

"Tail end runs [will be] a vital difference."
Both tails scored runs, but neither was that vital to the results.
The call: FAIL

"And finally... Sledging"
Again, a no brainer in any Aus/SA context. If anything the Aussies have gotten worse over the years. Maybe the stump mikes are just better. 
The call: WIN

~~~~o~~~~

One All

Despite a slow track, Smith's continued lack of form, being one bowler down (dammit Parnell!), being without a specialist spinner and a day five rainstorm literally looming on the horizon the Protea's rose to the occasion and handed out a lesson on what it takes to be number 1. Not for nothing have they held that rating fo the past 18 months.

There's lots that could be said, but to paraphrase cricinfo commentor SurlyCynic I think that the comments posted all over by Aussie fans pretty much sum it up:

Before the Test: "It doesn't matter what the pitch is like, Johnson will destroy you!"
After Day 1: "Pitch doctoring! This is the perfect anti-Mitch pitch! - slow and low, totally unlike the usual PE pitch which is... erm, slow and low."
After Day 2: "SA got lucky wickets. Aus will recover to make 400. AB is the world's most boring batsman to watch"
After Day 3: "Rain is forecast for day 5!"
After Day 4: "We were screwed by the umpiring decisions!"

Further commentary from me will wait until after the deciding Test at Newlands. It doesn't look like I'll be getting there in person, but you never know....

Capitulation

The last five years have been a golden age for South African cricket - clearly the best since readmission and certainly among the best of our cricketing history. In one week, on and off the field, we've seen the first glimmers of the future. It ain't pretty.

In the board room, CSA's troupe of administrators surrendered to the will of cricket's Big Three. They were bought for depressingly little. I wish I'd been wrong, but it was an easy call to make. With CSA on board, the BCCI and it's two brides got their way and everyone else began their new lives as official lower caste citizens in the cricketing world. The last hold outs, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, abstained. I wish them luck with their continued resistance and would like to apologise on behalf of all South Africa to their fans for our bungling bureaucrat's abject surrender. Time will tell whose path was the right one to choose.

With that last sad act the saga of the ICC restructuring came to an end and there was a gap for actual cricket to take center stage. The Proteas duly followed their board's lead by throwing in the towel against a red hot Australian team. Gaps and weaknesses that have been slowly appearing in Graeme's Smith's team were rapidly wrenched open and it wasn't long before the wheels came off completely. There are two Tests to go but there needs to be a whole lot of improvement if we're going to save the series from here. We got out of jail against Pakistan and India, but I don't know if we can hope for a third such result in a row.

In the board room, CSA say that they have been promised more fixtures for the national team. We will know more once the Big Three finalise their bilateral agreements. No prizes will be awarded for predicting who such agreements will be arranged to suit. Those of us in the lower caste of cricket playing nations will just have to wait and see how the scraps of the rich are divvied out.

On the field, the Proteas will have better days than last week. We might even pull off another miraculous series rescue against these rejuvenated Australians, and even if we don't we will still be ranked #1. The golden era will continue for a while; AB, Dale and the others will fight the dying of light for some time yet. But our first post-Kallis Test has shown us that nothing lasts forever, especially not sporting success.

The wheel always turns, but this time there is a difference: the hand spinning it is the BCCI, ECB and CA. Power in the board room might not directly project across the boundary, but control over the flow of money and the scheduling of fixtures sure doesn't hurt your teams chances. The Proteas of the 2010's could be the last team outside this Big Three to dominate Test cricket.

Here Come The Aussies

When I started writing here I thought it was going to be about cricket. Instead for a month it's been mostly ranting about ICC politics. This hasn't been helped by my relative lack of interest in the Ram Slam T20, the Big Bash or Sri Lanka v Bangladesh.

Well it's time to change that. Hot from thrashing the old enemy, Australia have landed in the Republic and they're here for the serious business of three Tests (plus some T20's that nobody will remember).

Let's see what the series will be all about...

~

Fast Bowlers

ht: The News

Because while Nathan Lyon will take some wickets and Robbie P will score some runs, in any Oz-SA series it's gotta be all about the quick men

The pre-series hype is naturally focused on Mitchell Johnson. He's fast, he's mean, he demolished the English and he has a good record against South Africa. He's broken Smith's hand twice and he's blooded Kallis. Pictures from OR Tambo suggest he may have even regrown his Ashes 'tache, but that may just have been shadows from the long haul flight.

Now Mitch is pretty fierce, but my money is on Ryan Harris as the danger man. He's class act whose career has been held back only by injury. Like Australia's version of Shane Bond, when Harris plays Australia look like a different team. Axeman Siddle will toil effectively and Mitch may or may not pitch, but a key battle of the series is between Harris' deadly swing and seam and the Protea's Kallis-less top order.

As always at home, if Steyn, Philander and Morkel stay fit enough to play all the games the Proteas will probably win. No doubt the Aussie "best attack in the world" bluster has got them suitably fired up. Who backs them up will be interesting too, which leads us to...

Jacques Kallis

ht: India Times

Or rather, the lack thereof.

This is the series where South Africans will first confront the post-Kallis future. Word seems to be that the strategy will be to move Faf to number four, to keep AB keeping at five (making him effectively the replacement all rounder for JK) and play one of McLaren or Parnell as a bowling all rounder at seven.

However you slice it the Proteas will be playing with one less batsman than for the last decade. At the same time this depleted lineup are up against the best bowling lineup they've faced for a while (Pakistan fans may disagree). The likes of Alviro Petersen, Faf du Plessis and arguably JP Duminy are never going to be more than average Test batters, so the seniors in Smith, Amla and de Villiers are going to need to collectively make up the extra man.

There's no way to replace a player like Kallis. How South Africa deal with his absence will be crucial to the teams fortunes for the next few years, starting now.

The Aussie Batsmen

ht: Zimbio

Because they've been pretty rubbish for a while now.

Clarke is world class and will get some runs, but the rest were poor at home against a wonky English attack. That Brad Haddin was the stand out in the lineup shows up how bad the rest were. BJ is a good keeper-batsman but he can't be saving the day every time around.

Of the rest, I've always rated Warner and Spud Smith. The rest are a mix of overrated senior pros and unproven rookies. Not too many remain from the lineup that was smoked for 47 at Newlands last time they were here, but this lot are going to need to be on top their game to avoid a similar fate.

Trash talk aside, the Proteas attack have been the scourge of all comers for years now. Whether or not the Aussie batsmen can scrape together enough runs for their bowlers to defend may well decide the series.

Tail Enders

ht: Cricket Dawn

Because it's going to be carnage at the top of the order.

This might not be everyone's pick, but my feeling is that tail end runs are often a vital difference between two sides with strong bowling attacks.

Both tails look reasonably strong. Johnson, Harris, Siddle and Lyon stack up pretty well against Peterson, Philander, Steyn and Morkel. With Watson at three Australia will probably have an extra batsman at seven, where the Proteas look like they'll make do with McLaren or Parnell. Still this one is anyone's race.

After the dust has settled and the shine has worn off the ball the runs those names can put on the board will make a big difference to the series result.

~

And finally...

Sledging

Premature bravado from the Aussie players in advance of the series has only been matched by Aussie fans on the forums rudely predicting a certain whitewash in favour of their team. As usual on cricinfo I'm genuinely puzzled by how such one eyed semi-literate rants get posted and my insightful and balanced comments are always moderated away.

Anyway. Posturing and online flame wars aside, it'll be a close series. The Proteas are starting favourites and I'm calling a 2-1 score line in their favour. Now to see if I can make a plan to get down to Newlands for at least some of the deciding Test...

Nailing Our Colours To The Mast

Cricket South Africa has surprised everyone by coming out loudly against the ICC restructuring proposals put forward by India, Australia and England (henceforth referred to as The ExCo Members). CSA has habitually been an incompetent, divisive and bumbling organisation. But this time around the feeling must be that they're getting shafted regardless so they might as well go down with the ship, lashed to the wheel and firing all the cannons. Of course, cricket politics leaves ample room for a craven reversal of this position. But at least for now someone has spoken up.

The politics behind India's recently truncated tour to SA have become clear. This proposal needs seven votes of the ten ICC Full Members to pass at the Jan 28/29 board meeting. Let's tally up the votes.

Sri Lanka has always been India's satellite. Pakistan and Bangladesh might have little love for the Indians but are likely to vote with them anyway as part of the Asian bloc. That leaves the three ExCo members with six votes; five if Pakistan go rogue. Zimbabwe will vote with South Africa.

So the ExCo needs one or both of New Zealand and the West Indies to vote with them. Not so coincidentally, these two countries were the ones filling up the gaps in India's schedule created by cancelling matches against South Africa.

The lads at CSA expressed some baffled confusion at the BCCI's politicking around the tour. At the time I thought it was our own incompetent administrators trying to play hardball with a team way out of their league. Now the full and brutal truth has come to light.

SA Spin

Image from ESPNCricinfo

Cricinfo's estimable Firdose Moonda published an article on South Africa's spin talent.

Here's how I see it playing out in Tests.

Of those the Moonda mentions in the article, I'd play Robin Peterson nine times out of ten. South Africa always look more comfortable with a containing spinner. Robbie P isn't as much one of those as Harris was, but he can do the job. As a bowling allrounder Peterson's batting and fielding ability makes him my default available choice.

Then there's Imran Tahir. There's no doubting his talent and experience, but as we saw in the UAE, Tahir is only really useful at Test level when you get the combination of a turning track and an inept opposition batting lineup. I'd play him on those days, otherwise I think his best contribution to South African cricket would be to keep plying his trade in the SunFoil series, hoodwinking our young domestic batsmen. At least it'll mean that when they get a shot at an international game it won't be the first time they've seen a googly. When he retires let's get him and Harro set up in a spin bowling academy. His experience is valuable. Tahir is also a better bowler in limited overs formats than the long form, so I think he still has a role to play there.

That's it for the incumbents. Frankly I'd consider coaxing Harris out of retirement (he's only 35), or reaching out to Johan Botha again (only 31). But team politics have probably shut the door on both of those options. It's a pity, not the least because Botha might have made a better captain than AB de Villiers. But that's an article for another day.

For the youngsters, I'd back Simon Harmer as the next in line. He's young, he turns the ball, he can bat, and he already has a first class bowling average and strike rate comparable to any of Peterson, Tahir, Harris, Boje or Adams.

Eddie Leie might get a go ahead of Harmer. He's older but has a better first class strike rate and average. I haven't seen enough of him to make a call, but if he gets a chance I hope he takes it.

I don't rate any of Dane Piedt, Prenelan Subrayen, Aaron Phangiso or Werner Coetsee as international prospects. The first two are young so maybe they'll still surprise me.

The best young spinner in the country with Harmer and Leie might just be Dane van Niekerk. Now her I'd love to see enrolled in the Tahir & Harris SA Spin Academy and bowling in the SunFoil series, but I guess that's unlikely to ever happen. Keep an eye on her career, I reckon she'll dominate in our woman's team.

Kallis: Here Come The Naysayers

The retirement of Jacques Kallis from Tests marks the end of an era in South African cricket, an era that spans just a little less than my own interest in the game. In my lifetime I doubt that we will see another player in the same class from any cricket playing nation.

The Internet is already full of articles singing his praises and digesting his remarkable statistics, but Kallis has always had his share of critics and they have also been sharpening their pens. Kartikeya Date's thoughtful article "Can Kallis really be called an allrounder?" does a good job of putting words and numbers to what most others struggle to articulate. In the coming weeks no doubt we will see more of the same.

Kartikeya damns with faint praise by calling Kallis "the greatest batsman who can bowl" and highlights the oft-cited observation that Kallis never dominated series with both bat and ball, and the less often cited fact that Kallis bowled fewer overs per year than Sobers, Imran, Hadlee and Kapil.

Most of the all rounder arguments are caused by people refusing to accept that there is more than one kind of all rounder, and that the different types are impossible to compare.

Batting all rounders: Kallis and Sobers are the best of these. Steve Waugh, Carl Hooper, Tony Greig, Wally Hammond and Wilfred Rhodes are others on the list. Ravi Shastri, Sanath Jayasuriya, Bob Simpson, Ted Dexter and Frank Worrel probably are too. Through most of their careers their bowling effectiveness was secondary to their batting. This is the case even for Sobers, despite what Kartikeya would like to claim.

Bowling all rounders: Imran Kahn and Ian Botham head this list, others on it are Kapil Dev, Richard Hadlee, Shaun Pollock, Keith Miller, and Andrew Flintoff. These guys were bowlers first and foremost but could, at least for some of their career, hold their own with a bat.

Comparing the two types leads to endless debates of "Kallis wouldn't be picked for his bowling" versus "Imran wouldn't be picked for his batting". Both are partly true, but the comparison is meaningless. Wicket-taking bowlers win you cricket matches, which makes bowling all rounders arguably the most valuable type of player. This further confuses the all rounder argument.

Statistics aside, one department that Sobers clearly has Kallis' number is in charisma. Sobers was a a renowned entertainer, a dashing, well built athlete and hailed from the mysterious Caribbean. Although they will never admit it, I'll bet that all his detractors find it hard to stomach that the second best batting all rounder in history is a chubby balding Afrikaans guy from Pinelands with all the charisma of a fence post.