Kallis or Sobers: Who's the greatest all-rounder of them all?

Bowling

Sobers could bowl variety whereas Kallis kept it simple

Sobers’ batting was all class and charisma, but his bowling was a conjurer’s dream as he could bowl left arm fast-medium, slow left-arm orthodox and slow left arm chinaman. Kallis kept things simple as he focused on bowling right arm fast-medium and could bowl a particularly heavy ball early in his career. While he took the new ball occasionally in limited overs cricket, he was a reliable fourth seamer or second change bowler throughout his career in a quality South African pace attack.

Sobers consistently took the new ball for West Indies in Test cricket and bowled spin with the old ball once the shine had worn off. Sobers 235 wickets came at an average of 34.03 whereas Kallis’ 292 wickets came at an average of 32.65.

Kallis, though mostly bowled after quality bowlers like Shaun Pollock, Allan Donald, Makhaya Ntini, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. Sobers, on the other hand, bowled at a time when the quality of the West Indies’ pace bowlers wasn’t the best and the fearsome quartet of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Colin Croft and Joel Garner was yet to burst onto international cricket.

Conclusion

While Kallis has to go down as one of the best players of all time with his stellar numbers, Sobers’ aura is hard to match and he is probably only second to the Don when a list of the greatest players of all time is made. Kallis, on the other hand, might struggle to make most such teams as his batting was steady and his bowling was honest.

Garry Sobers played in a team which had a handful of world class players yet helped them to win one-third of all matches he played. Hence, he has to be the greatest all-rounder of all time.