Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown
WE NEED to talk about Kallis. In fact, the talk has been going on for a while. But, sometime in the next two weeks, it will involve its central figure for the first time.
Finally, Jacques Kallis will sit down at a table with his agent, Dave Rundle, selection convener Andrew Hudson, SA coach Russell Domingo and team manager Mohammed Moosajee, who said the discussion would take place “before the end of the month”.
The point of “the conversation”, as it has been referred to with due reverence by Domingo and Hudson, will be to establish a plan to ensure Kallis’s storied career encompasses the 2015 World Cup. It seems a simple goal. It isn’t.
Since the 2011 World Cup, Kallis has played in just seven of SA’s 34 one-day internationals. They will play 25 more before the 2015 tournament in Australia and New Zealand. How many of those matches will involve Kallis will be the key decision of the meeting.
In a tone leaving no doubt that a commitment was required, Domingo made his views plain in the course of a brave and excoriating review last week of SA’s performance in their one-day series in Sri Lanka, which they lost 1-4: “If Jacques wants to play in the World Cup he will have to play ODIs leading up to the event.”
Broad consensus already exists. “Jacques understands that it would be unfair on other players if he doesn’t play ODIs before the World Cup,” Rundle said.
“He also understands he does not have a right to a place in the national team.”
For Hudson, all that was required was a nod from the stalwart allrounder: “If he’s motivated and keen to play, who wouldn’t want Jacques Kallis in their side?”
Should Kallis enjoy the privilege of deciding when he would and wouldn’t be part of the team? Inside the Proteas dressing room, the answer to that
We’ve seen in two years just how big a gap Jacques leaves in the dressing room — he’s probably the world’s best player
question was unequivocal.
“The most important thing is what Jacques feels at the moment,” Faf du Plessis said. “If you want him to play in the 2015 World Cup and if he feels it’s not right for him to play at the moment, and he needs some more time and more space, that’s probably what you’re going to have to give him.
“Jacques Kallis will be at his best for us when he wants to play for the Proteas.”
Domingo advised South Africans to come to terms with the fact that Kallis, who will be 39 when the World Cup is played, could not go on forever. But Kallis’s teammates, it seems, aren’t ready to countenance that truth.
“He is King Kallis,” Du Plessis said. “We thought we could get on without him, but he’s a world-class player and any team would benefit from his skills. We’ve seen in the last two years just how big a gap Jacques leaves in the dressing room — he’s probably the world’s best player.
“If you take the best players out of any team, that team is going to have holes in it.
“We try to fill them with players who have potential, but world-class players are worldclass players for a reason: there aren’t many of them.
“As much as we can say there is a time for new guys to step in, those new guys still need time to get to the right level.”
They should get another chance to do so in SA’s next one-day engagement, a series of five games against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates starting on October 30. Kallis is not expected to play.
That leaves 20 more matches until World Cup lift-off. Twenty, that is, and counting.