Because paradoxically we end up having to watch even more of him.
The South African selectors felt they could do without the world’s most willing batsman and least willing bowler for the Twenty20 World Cup. Jacques Kallis was a little irritated by this and resigned the vice-captaincy. He also claimed to be ‘thinking over his international future’ which is a way of threatening the selectors when you’ve clearly no intention of going.
Anyway, returning to the side for this Test series against Pakistan, Kallis has been showing the selectors his worth in no uncertain terms. Innings of 155 and 100 not out in the first Test have been followed by 59 and 107 not out in the second Test.
So South Africa’s selectors have been proven wrong then? Well, no. They dropped him because of a ‘nightmare’ schedule in the next 18 months, saying they wanted to keep one of their most important players fresh. That decision seems to have been vindicated.
Resting players from full-blown international events so that they’ll be fresh for other ones is crap. The match where the player’s rested isn’t as competitive as it should be and assuming the other players need resting as well, the next match is effectively weakened also.
THAT, friends, is international cricket as it stands today.
Watching Kallis is like watching champion rowers, you know everythey do is technically correct but the thought of actually watching them do it is almost too much to bare.
It’s like looking at the inner-workings of a grandfather clock.
Yes, everthing’s working all right, but… myeh. You just want to know what time it is.
And could time maybe pass a little faster and perhaps take into account the match situation as well.
He’s a fine batsman, but a little one-dimensional. And that dimension isn’t the fourth.