Unfairly Kallis has been ranked at 52nd place by Cristopher Martin Jenkins and 82nd place by Geoff Armstrong in ranking the 100 best cricketers of all time.They feel that Kallis did not champion the cause with both bat and ball in the same period.However they forget the era Kallis played with the advent of so much one day cricket and t-20 cricket.Kallis lacked the flamboyance of Sobers or Botham with the bat but neverthless he laid the base for many a victory for his tea.His all-round performance in the series against West Indies in 1998 compare with that of any great all-rounder.The Kallis also opened the bowling for a great attack which is remarkable like in England in 1998.

Why Sobers is the greatest of all-rounders was because he could turn the complexion of games more than Kallis.I would place Kallis amongst the top 12 cricketers of all time just a notch below Tendulkar,Imran or Viv Richards ,Sobers,Warne ,Bradman and Hobb s on account of lacking as much of flair..

Jacques Kallis was the 2nd best all-rounder of all-time after Sir Garfield Sobers.Statistically his staggering figures in test cricket alone make him the greatest all-rounder of all time.However he lacked the charisma,x-factor and match-winning flair of Sir Garfield Sobers .As a batsman Kallis was one of the best ever when the chips were down and could bat for your life as well as Gary Sobers.At his best he could also bowl sensational spells of fast -medium pace bowling.What went against Jacques being rated at the top was that he often did not accelerate the pace to in games with the bat and hardly contributed with the ball in the latter part of his career.Unfairly experts rank Kallis below Botham,Imran,Miller or Kapil Dev because he lacked flamboyance.If Kallis played on the seamer friendly wickets of the era of Botham Imran,Hadlee and Kapil I feel he would have eclipsed them as an all-rounder.Remember Kallis has taken 5 wickets and scored a century in the same test twice.

He probably has heard of Sir Garfield Sobers and thinks highly of him, but not his favourite cricket player.

  Ian James on November 3, 2015, 17:39 GMT

I guess he never heard of Garry Sobers