Jacques Kallis

Leroy Ambrose

Have to put Shark up as the greatest all-rounder ever. Just been looking through his stats on Cricinfo - mind-boggling. Compare the quiet, dignified way he went out - still right at the top of his game, with a ton - with the shadow that Tendulkar had become over the last couple of years and the mass hysteria that surrounded his last innings.

They'll have trouble replacing him - dug them out of a lot of holes with his batting, contributed plenty of wickets and did it all whilst never looking flustered or being up himself. A true great of the game.

Absurdistan

Hadlee for me.

Riviera

Whilst his stats are undoubtedly impressive Kallis has managed to play for a very long time without ever really being spectacular. Solid as a rock but hardly a bar emptier.
For excitement I would put Botham, Kapil Dev and Imran Khan ahead of him as genuine all-rounders that I have seen. I'd rather see a team with Flintoff in than Kallis too, Freddie's numbers aren't brilliant but that is statistics for you, they don't lie but they don't tell the whole truth either.
Kallis' bowling has steeply declined over recent years too for him to be considered a true Test all-rounder these days in my opinion. His batting record is fantastic but then he has played 160+ Tests.

Overall, if you look at stats and listen to the sages of the game I consider Gary Sobers to still be the greatest all-rounder. In just over 90 Tests, over 8,000 runs, 26 100's at average of almost 58, 235 wickets bowling lively Left arm fast medium, orthodox slow left arm and Chinamen.

Always difficult to compare eras and that is why "all time lists" etc are pretty pointless, fun to chat about though.

What is sad about Kallis departure is that there really aren't any real Test all-rounders left, we had loads of them a few years ago but they seem to be a dying breed. Shane Watson anyone?

CharltonKerry

Sobers for me, a natural bowler and batsmen, also weren't a bad spin bowler towards the end.

Lincsaddick

An all-time great and I mean that in the real not the overused sense of the word. He will still be around to bolster the SA one day side. He is fit, talented, motivated and could play on into his 40s. The SA test team will be at least 30% less productive for his retirement.

Ormiston_Addick

Agree on Sobers, best all rounder of all-time no question about it.

Early days but Stokes looks like he might turn out better than Flintoff.

Imagine what Botham might have done in second half of his career if he had looked after himself properly? From 1987-92 he was a good two stone overweight! Still a great player though but could have done even more if he had been properly fit!

Kallis was a superb player but very one-dimensional in his batting, sometimes to the detriment of his team.

McBobbin

Kallis was amazing. World class batsmen - one of the finest of all time even if he was solid rather than spectacular. He might not have got picked for his bowling alone, at least not in the last few years, but his ball that retired ponting was a zinger. He's pure class.

Sobers has to talked about as a contender for greatest cricketer of all time though.

Kallis pisses all over flintoff though.

soapy_jones

How the hell did Kallis slip through the English selectors net?


Top class cricketer...

mid_life_crisis

Sobers & Kallis, then the others some considerable way behind IMO.