Mr Dependable Jacques Kallis

Photo: Themba Hadebe

Photo: Themba Hadebe

Published Jul 25, 2016

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I always took great pleasure throughout my career with the fact that I could potentially contribute to the team’s cause with both bat and ball.

I always wanted to be involved in the game, which is why I never wanted to play purely as a specialist batsman. I always believed that I happened to fail in the one discipline, I could come back and contribute with the other.

Succeeding with bat or ball gave me equal pleasure. Over my long career with the Proteas I can gratefully say there were plenty of highlights. The personal ones are, of course, my maiden century at the MCG against the Aussies.

Scoring a 100 against a quality attack like they had on the last day to help save a Test match was a dream of mine. I was just disappointed that I never saw it through to the end and it was certainly nerve-wrecking watching the guys bat out those last few overs of the day.

After the long wait, my double-century against India in Pretoria was also very special.

The best times, though, as any player will tell you are the special memories created with your teammates celebrating the team’s successes. That always gave me the most amount of satisfaction.

After years of touring those countries, beatingAustralia in Australia and England in England for the first time was very special.

To be part of the only Proteas side to win an ICC event back in 1998 when we won the first ICC Champions Trophy in Bangladesh is also memorable.

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