2)Jacques Kallis was extremely close to his father Henry. When Kallis senior was diagnosed with terminal cancer, his son took time out of the sport to be with his father. When Henry Kallis finally passed away at 65, Jacques Kallis changed his One-Day International jersey to the same number.
3) Jacques Kallis had done his schooling at Wynberg Boys’ High school, and it is there where he got his first exposure in cricket. In 2009, the school named it’s ground after the batsman.
4) Jacques Kallis is one of the greatest players of the game and all-rounders.As of 2013 he was the only cricketer in the history of the game to score more than 13,000 runs and take 250 wickets in both one-day and Test match cricket..
5) Jacques Kallis sister Janine is a cheerleader for Chennai Super Kings (CSK). When Jacques playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the second edition of IPL was dismissed, Janine actually celebrated the dismissal of her brother. Jacques took the entire event rather sportingly and mentioned that he was impressed by her dance at his dismissal.
6) Jacques Kallis made his Test debut against England in 1995. Jacques Kallis had an unimpressive debut, having scored just 1 run. He made his ODI debut against England, but couldn’t make any subsequent impact in his initial ODIs, nor in South Africa’s campaign in the 1996 World Cup. His first major breakthrough for the national team came in a match saving Test knock against Australia in Melbourne, in 1997.
7) Jacques Kallis was dropped from the Western Province Under-15 side because you have to believe it “he was too small to hit the ball off the square” (Ali Bacher and David Williams). When he got to know of this, Kallis responded with “I’ll show them,” and made his way back promptly. He is not exactly “small” these days.
8) Jacques Kallis played 166 Test matches and had a batting average of over 55 runs per innings
9) Jacques Kallis became the fourth player and first South African to score 13,000 Test runs on an eventful opening day of the first Test against New Zealand on 2 January 2013. Jacques Kallis, who had also taken 292 Test wickets, lies third behind Indian player Sachin Tendulkar (15,921) and Australian Ricky Ponting (13,378) on the list of all time run scorers in test cricket.
10) Jacques Kallis was a rugby fly-half in his teens; in fact, he was good enough for MPC Entertainment to mention that he “could just as easily have been starring for the Springboks as the Proteas.” While he never became a double-international, he co-authored Rugby in Our Blood with rugby union coach Jake White, Olympic gold-medallist rower John Smith, sports journalist Angus Powers, and the iconic sprinter Oscar Pistorius.
11) While just a few years ago, Jacques Kallis managed to become just the 8th player to complete the double of 3000 runs and 100 wickets, it was 4 years later, being aged just under 30, wherein Kallis became the leading run scorer for South Africa in Tests. The previous record was held by Gary Kirsten, who had 7289 runs.
12) 2005 was the year wherein Kallis established himself as one of the best in the era. Having scored 1288 runs in a single year alone, he was named as the Test Player of the Year and joint Player of the Year by ICC, being the second recipient of the award post it’s inception in 2004.
13) On December 21, 2010, Kallis met with a minor accident (but emerged unscathed) while driving his Audi R8 at Wynberg. The cheeky Mark Boucher did not hesitate to have a go at Kallis, fresh from a recent hair transplant: “Think my mate’s hair must have got into his eyes while driving last night.”
14) Jacques Kallis was named one of the Wisden cricketers of the year in 2013.He retired from Test and first-class cricket after playing in the second Test against India at Durban in December 2013 Kallis scored his 45th Test hundred in this match, making him one of the few batsmen to score a century in his final Test. He retired from all form of international cricket on 30 July 2014.
15) Jacques Kallis had totally played 325 ODI matches and scored 11,574 runs with an average of 45.13 including 17 centuries and 86 half century with a top score of 139. Jacques Kallis also had taken 273 wickets with his bowling average of 31.79
16) In 2006, Jacques Kallis raced past Sir Gary Sober’s record of 8032 runs, and became just the second player since the legend himself to have achieved the double of 8000 Test runs and 200 Test wickets.
17) In his 150th Test, Jacques Kallis became the first ever batsman to score a 150. Kallis went on to score 224 against India, which was his second and last double century in Tests, which is also his highest Test score.
18) Jacques Kallis has been described by Kevin Pietersen and Daryll Cullinan as the greatest cricketer to play the game.
19) As a teenager, Kallis played for the Old Edwardians team, where coaches began to see his potential as an all-rounder.
20) Jacques Kallis is the only cricketer to have achieved the combination of 20,000+ international runs, 500+ wickets and 300+ catches and Kallis is only next best to the legendary Garry Sobers on the list of best all-rounders in all international formats put together, based on the average difference criteria. In away Tests, Kallis has done even better than Sobers in terms of average.
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