October 17 Thursday 2002
Kallis set to join elite group

JOHANNESBURG: Although Jacques Kallis already has many cricketing records behind his name, he could join yet another exclusive club this weekend in East London.

Kallis, who turns 27 on Wednesday, could give himself a big birthday present in the first Test against Bangladesh by becoming only the fifth player in cricket history to score 4,000 runs and take 100 wickets. Sir Garfield Sobers, Carl Hooper (both West Indies), Ian Botham (England) and Kapil Dev (India) are the only other players to have reached that lofty milestone.

Kallis only needs 29 runs to qualify for the exclusive club and if he could score them in the Test at Buffalo Park, he would probably be the second quickest to reach the mark. Kapil Dev made it in his 97th Test, Hooper and Botham in their 90th and 69th Tests while Kallis would be playing in his 61st Test in East London. Sobers, who concluded his career of 93 Tests with 8,032 runs and 235 wickets, already had 4,000 runs and 100 wickets in the bag in his 48th Test.

Kallis took his 100th wicket against India in Bloemfontein in his 53rd Test last year when he got rid of Sachin Tendulkar. He already achieved the 'bowlers century' twice by taking five wickets in an innings while he boasts nine tons with the bat. He scored his 3,971 runs at an average rate of 47.27 per innings and took his 117 wickets at 30.06 apiece on the average.

Kallis already rewrote the history books for all-rounders when he took 3-44 with the ball in Potchefstroom against the Bangladeshis. When Manjural Islam was caught behind off his bowling by Errol Stewart, Kallis became the fastest man in One-day Internationals to reach the 5,000 runs and 150-wicket mark. 

Only three other players ever got to that mark and they are Sri Lanka's captain Sanath Jayasuriya in 191 matches, while Hooper and former Australian captain Steve Waugh took 196 and 218 respectively to get there.