To Kallis, from Mount Maunganui, with love

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

JACQUES Kallis will be touched to know that on Thursday, his 39th birthday, the good people of Mount Maunganui were thinking of him.

Kallis, who announced his retirement from international cricket on July 30, has been missing from SA’s one-day side for their last eight matches. Of the 40 ODIs SA have played since the beginning of last year, Kallis, a veteran of 328 caps in the format, featured in only seven.

But in a town where the biggest game of cricket yet played was the Netherlands’ World Cup qualifier against Canada in January, and which will host the first ODI between New Zealand and SA on Tuesday, the greatest SA player of them all clearly remained uppermost in a significant number of the 4131 minds who make up the local citizenry.

So, six days before the start of his team’s next step towards next year’s World Cup in Australasia, Russell Domingo found himself answering questions about a player SA have to get used to being without.

“Kallis hasn’t played a lot of one-day cricket of late so we have always had in the back of our minds what the back-up plan to him would be,” Domingo told reporters at a press conference.

“We are still trying to find - particularly on the bowling side of things - someone who can match his particular skills. Faf (du Plessis) has stepped up on the batting side and has done really well for us.”

The absence from the touring party of Graeme Smith, who played the last of 197 ODIs in November last year and retired in March, was also probed.

“Graeme Smith’s decision to stop playing was probably more unexpected, but he had also been in and out of the one-day side a little bit,” Domingo said.

“Quinton de Kock had done really well (in his place) but they are massive players to replace and it was always going to be difficult - not just on the playing side but also on the leadership side.

“But the game goes on. Nobody is irreplaceable and we are fortunate in SA that we always have a good pool of talent to fall back on. Hopefully we can develop the new Smiths and the new Kallises.”

Besides, Domingo hinted, sometimes change is not all good - a view borne out by the fact that only seven players made the ODI debuts in the 29 games SA played last year and none in their 11 this year.

“It’s nice not to have to welcome any new players into the team,” Domingo said. “It’s quite a settled team at the moment, and we’ve played a good brand of one-day cricket over the last few months, having beaten India, Sri Lanka and Australia (since December).”

Time was when Kallis and Smith would have been vital members of SA’s XI in all 14 of the matches those series comprised. This time, Kallis was involved in only five games and Smith in none. SA won 11 of those matches and lost just two, with one washed out.

The game goes on indeed.