5 Lesser-Known Interesting Facts About Jacques Kallis

It is believed that everyone is blessed with a special ability. But there are some fine exceptions, conspicuously in cricket. Such endowed people are termed as “all-rounders” in cricket. An all-rounder is the superglue that appends a cricket team. An all-rounder carries the load of two people in a team. Hence, it is such an important & uniformly tough job.

Born on this very day in 1975, Jacques Kallis is the finest paradigm of the aforementioned spot & arguably the greatest player to grace the sport. Be it batting records, bowling records or fielding records, the man is always among the top ones in every chart. It is quite unbelievable if a cricket record doesn’t involve his name. One of the greatest servants of South African Cricket; a true ambassador of the game; Kallis had one heck of a career to be proud about. Since he’s such a followed person, there isn’t much that’s unknown about him.

But here we’ll have a look at some the lesser-known facts about him on the special occasion of his birthday.

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#1 The Family Man Of A Professional Family

He was exceedingly close to his dad, Henry Kallis. When Henry was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Jacques took a break from the sport to spend some time with his beloved father in his difficult days. The immense love & sacrifice from Jacques couldn’t be enough as the senior Kallis deceased at the age of 65. To honor his dad, Kallis then changed his jersey number to 65. Kallis was one true family man whereas his family was a professional one.

Janine Kallis is the sister of Jacques & was a cheerleader of CSK (Chennai Super Kings). During a match in the second edition of IPL between CSK & RCB, Jacques - playing for RCB – lost his wicket and Janine danced & celebrated on her brother’s dismissal. Jacques wasn’t dejected by that & took the incident sportingly.

#2 Forgettable Inauguration But A Memorable Conclusion

He had a terrible start to his international career

For a player with such high caliber, it is quite astonishing that he had scored just 57 runs at at an average of 8.14 in his first 7 Test innings. Till his 22nd test match, he had an underwhelming average of under 31. But after that he never looked back and knocked off achievements after achievements like a walk in the park. He finished with 45 centuries with an average of 55.37.

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#3 The Big Man Who Hit Them Big

Kallis is mainly known for as a rock-solid player who would put a price on his wicket & won’t go for too many big shots. But what many don’t know is that he is the most prolific six-hitter for South Africa in both Test & ODI.

He has cracked 97 maximums in the longest format of the game whilst AB de Villiers comes 2nd in the list with just 50 sixes. Likewise, he has hit 137 sixes in the 50 over format ahead of Herschelle Gibbs who has 128 to his name.

#4 Only Behind The Don Himself

Kallis has an average of 55.37 in Test matches combining both the 1st & 2nd innings, but he has a bit better average in the 2nd innings compared to his career average & 1st innings average. He average 56.26 in the 2nd innings of Test matches (among those with more than 2000 runs). It is the second highest in Test cricket history only behind Sir Donald Bradman.

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#1 Not one to sledge

Great people let their actions speak for themselves and Kallis was one of them. He was never threatened by the sledges & shouts. One such instance was when Michael Kasprowicz tried to get under the skin of the South African but failed miserably.

Michael kept hitting the tough bouncers & kept yelling at Kallis with no impact at all. Despaired by Kallis’ zero reactions to his sledges, Kasprowicz alleged ”Is this man deaf?”