Hyderabad: After a disastrous one-day tour of Sri Lanka, South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis has finally decided to hang his boots as he announced his retirement from the two International forms of cricket that he continued to play, the ODIs and T20s.
The South African legend leaves the One-Day-Internationals with 11,579 runs from 328 matches and 273 wickets from 283 innings.
If, those numbers don’t impress, he was a mix of Rahul Dravid (10889 runs) and Zaheer Khan (282 wickets).
But being the modest person that he is, Kallis told this correspondent in an earlier interview: “I did not really play for numbers. I just want to give my best each time I put on the South African jersey. I was happy doing whatever my team asked me to and the numbers came along.”
Life after retirement? “I will do the things I was not able to all these years due to my cricket commitments,” he said.
Having spent 18 years in the game, Kallis has made good friends along the way. One among them is Mark Boucher, the former South African wicket-keeper who was his teammate for 16 years.
Unlike most South Africans, Kallis does not enjoy fishing.
“No, no. I am not the fishing kind of guy (laughs). I don’t like fishing. But now that I am done with my international commitments, I will play a lot more golf with Marky (Boucher). And spend more time with my family and friends.”
Kallis is not too high on the nightlife. “I would rather sit in the garden, turn on the barbeque, grab a couple of beers and spend some quality time with my friends and family,” he said.
